Kida HUN, the Bloody Fang
by Babyuknowme13
Summary: What if Minato couldn't bear the sight of his daughter after Sarutobi took his place in the sealing? What if later, she got adopted by Kakashi and Iruka? What if she became the first Bloody Fang? Follow Kida as her story begins, and her destiny calls. NOW
1. Chapter 1

LC; WAH! The poor poor, ikle Naru-chan!  
Naruto; Stop with the water works already!  
Sakura; She's worse than Inari.  
LC; I almost can't believe I'm writing this!  
Naruto; Geez, what's got you blubbering now?  
LC; I'm going to blind you!  
Naruto;...Wait a sec. In the story or here?  
LC; HERE! *Takes acid spray gun and fires at Naruto's eyes.*  
Naruto: GAAAAHHH! It burns!  
LC; To story-chan!  
Disclaimer; I do not own them, so buzz off already and let me get to my story!

Chapter 1; Lies and the truth often go hand in hand.

Minato panted with exertion as he watched his beloved predecessor, the Sandaime, Sarutobi, fall to the ground. First his wife, and then his father figure?  
He walked over to the old man's corpse and looked down at his hour old daughter, Naru.  
His daughter's eyes opened slowly and she looked up at him with a strange inteligence that infants simply did not have, ever.  
The seal appeared to be intact, and yet, something, otherworldly was looking at him through her eyes.  
"Naru, I have subjected you to this fate." He cursed sadly, hating the demon, hating her, but most of all, hating himself.

Two hours later, he had arranged for her to be taken to an orphanage under the story he had found her left on her own in the battle field.  
He couldn't look at her, for her bright red hair and blue eyes reminded him too much of her mother, of Kushina.  
Jaraiya believed the child had perished in the attack, Tsunade too believed that. No one knew that the red headed girl with whisker marks in the orphanage was his daughter.

Three years passed, and Kakashi found himself about to adopt one lucky kid from the local orphanage. Why he was doing it, he had almost no idea.  
Iruka, (Who is a girl in this fic.) had told him he wanted a kid after they got married two months ago. However, it turned out that she was incapable of having a child herself.  
So they were doing the next best thing, adopting one.

"The children are all playing outside today." The matron told them cheerfully. "Just watch them for a bit, talk to a few, and tell me your decision later."  
Iruka looked over the small play yard and saw almost every kid was running around with some toy or other playing and having fun, not a care in the world.  
For some strange reason, he was drawn to a corner of the play yard, where a small girl was reading a book.  
She instantly recognized the book as the biography of the Yondaime, which had been released last year. "Kakashi, look at that one over in the corner." She nudged her husband.

Obeying his little dolphin, he too noticed the red haired girl reading the book, though that was all they could see with the book in her face.  
In truth, this girl was very small, and her clothes seemed the most worn out. Kakashi noticed that her hair was cut short and lopsided, as though she'd done it herself.  
The matron noticed where they were looking and decided to tell them about her, interesting charge.

"That's Kida, she's quite smart for someone only three years old." She told them. "Though she's also rather unsocial. She doesn't play with any of the other children."  
"Could we talk to her?" Iruka asked. At the matron's nod they both went over to the corner where the little girl was sounding out a particularly long word.  
"Oro-chi-mar-u." She sounded, looking at a picture of a snake like man. "A trai-tor who left the vil-lage be-cause of pow-er."  
"Hello there!" Iruka greeted her, kneeling in front of her.  
The girl gasped and cautiously lowered her book. "Um, yes?" She asked uncertainly, as though thinking they were talking to someone else.

"Kida, these two are prospective parents who are thinking about adoption." The matron said helpfully, gazing down at her shy charge.  
Now that the book was lowered, they could see her remarkable blue eyes, floating red hair, and exotic whisker marks adorning each cheek. The only other thing of notice was the small fox pendant hanging around her neck.  
"Kida is it?" Kakashi said unnecessarily. "Why don't you tell us a little about yourself?"  
Kida blinked. She couldn't help it! After a couple years of parents' eyes just kinda looking over you, you begin to wonder if there was a reason no one noticed you.

"I'm Kida, and I like to read, though I'm only learning." She said cutely, allowing a small smile to grace her features. "I know I'm small, but I'm able to take care of myself too." It was true, from a young age she'd been very independent. At two she began watching the cook as she cooked and thus learned how herself.  
Her face grew downcasted though as she realized that was all she could say about herself. "You'd probably like Kiwa, he's bigger and stronger than me, and he's going to be a ninja too someday. Or if you really want a girl, there's Tsubaki who has pretty gold hair and is always really nice to everyone."

Iruka noticed how she was only trying to get them to think about the other children. It seemed she didn't see anything of value within herself.  
"What about you? What do you want to do?" Kakashi asked, not letting something like that slip by him.  
Kida flinched, almost like she expected to be hit. "Um, I want to be a ninja to, like the Yondaime." She said, cradeling her book to her small chest. "Someday, I'd like to be that strong. I want to show others I can be strong."  
Kakashi smiled under his mask and Iruka positively beamed with delight. She'd always wanted a daughter.

They both turned back to the matron, Kakashi's hand wrapped gently around the waist of his wife. "Just tell us where to sign."

Kida almost couldn't believe it was really happening. She was going to be adopted! She smiled a one hundred watt smile and ran all the way to her bed in the orphans' room.  
Under the bed was a box with her worldly possesions, few as they were, were kept.  
In it was a red fox plushie she slept with every night, a blue blanket with a red swirl on it that she'd been wrapped in when she was brought here, a small diary, and scroll.  
It was obviously a ninja scroll, and as such she wasn't suppossed to have it, but one day it just appeared next to her head on the pillow and she'd kept it.  
Believing it was meant for her.

Putting the book over the scroll so it was hidden from sight, she hefted it up and carried out the door. The other children all called out good byes and fare wells as she left the building she'd been raised in for three years.  
Once they got home, Kakashi-tousan showed her the room she'd be sleeping in. It wasn't much, just a bed, dresser, side table, and lamp.  
But to Kida, it was a beautiful paradise. Her personal garden of Eden.

"Tommorrow we'll go shopping for some new clothes and things for you." Iruka-kaasan promised her. Frankly she'd do just about anything to see her new little girl smile at her again.  
"New clothes!" Kida repeated, practically buzzing with excitement.  
Truly it was an entirely new girl from the one who'd been sitting out of sight in a corner trying to struggle through a book meant for much older kids.  
"Yep!" Kakashi said, ruffling her feathery flocks with one hand. "But today we start training by going shopping for ninja gear."

THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE A LINE BUT I CAN'T MAKE ONE SO THIS WILL HAVE TO DO!

Minato had been happy for Kakashi and Iruka when they announced they were going to adopt. As he stared out his large window in his office, he wondered what kind of kid they'd choose.  
Would it be a boy, or a girl? How old would the kid be? What personality would they have? Would they get more than one?  
He never once gave thought to wether they would choose his daughter or not.  
Boy would he be surprised when he went to meet the little gaki.

ANOTHER LINE THINGY WAS SUPPOSED TO GO HERE BUT THIS IS MORE FUN!

Kida was riding on Kakashi's shoulders when they entered the weapon's shop owned by the Twenty's. (That's Tenten's last name here since I can't find her last name anywhere.)  
Tenten was listening to her father explain about the composition of the metal used to make kunai when she heard the little bell on the door ring.  
(Tenten's like, four right now.)  
"Hey daddy!" She said, pointing to the two entering the shop. "Looky looky!"  
"I see Tenten, I see." Twotwo sighed tiredly. (Yes, that's his name.)

"Excuse me?" Kakashi said politely. "I was wondering if I could buy some training wieghts and see about getting a nodachi for my daughter." He said proudly, the word daughter just sent shivers of pride down his back.  
Before, he'd never pictured himself as a father, in any way, shape, or form. But today, when someone small and weak needed him, he couldn't help but be proud that something so small and sweet thought of him as a father.  
"Kakashi!" Twotwo cried happily. "You finally adopted? That's great! So what's her name?"  
"I'm Kida!" The little girl cried happily, looking over her father's gravity defying hair. After rubbing it between her hands, she'd concluded he did not use any gel for it.  
Which just made her wonder how it stayed like that even more.

Kakashi placed his little girl on the ground and she looked around the shop of all things pointy, and couldn't help but think.  
'Oooh!' She thought happily. "Sharp and pointy objects...pretty!'  
The weights were blue, like her eyes, and the more chakra she pushed into them, the heavier they became. However, if someone else tried using the weights once she put chakra in them, they would be normal wrist and ankle bands, nearly weightless.  
The same for the mid-section band.  
"A nodachi eh?" Twotwo scratched his chin and measured the little three year old with his eyes. "You chose a good weapon for her Kakashi." He acknowledged. "She's clearly going to be an unpredictable fighter, meant for close combat, maybe some mid range things."

After ten minutes, they finally found a nodachi of the proper callibre for Kida. It had a blue handel, and a red sheath, on it was an engraving.  
It read; The past is history, the future a mystery, but today is a gift.  
Kida reread the sentence until she was sure she had it memorized. "It's really mine?" She asked her tousan.  
"All yours kiddo." Kakashi eye smiled when he was once again blessed with the beautiful smile. He frowned again when he had a new thought.  
'I may have to buy myself a few new weapons if I want to have a chance of beating the boys off her in the future.' He gave some serious thought to the scythe leaning in a corner but in the end gave up the idea under the pretense he could always Tsukiyomi the first guy to hit on his daughter.  
The risk was smaller than the consequences of Kida going on a date with the wrong guy.

On the way home, the two could only talk about starting her training after clothes shopping the next day. "I thought no one started ninja training till they were eight!" Kida demanded, slightly suspicious of her adoptive parents' motives at training her so early.  
"Young ninja who come from clans usually begin learning very early on." Kakashi told her. After all, both Iruka and Kida were now Hatake's, so they were a part of a clan.  
"Oh." Kida said, still more worried about the amazing abilities of her father's hair then her training as of yet.

The next day, they went shopping. They, being Iruka and her new daughter.  
After buying up some pretty cute orange shirts and shorts, the two left for the hokage tower, where Kakashi was going to show his sensei his new daughter.  
"I really get to meet the Yondaime?" Kida asked excitedly, clutching her book close to her heart. She was bound and determinned to get him to autograph it and damn it to Hell if anything was going to stop her!

Minato expected all sorts of kids to walk into the office with Iruka. He did not expect his own daughter, the exact vision of Kushina, to walk in clutching his biography to her chest and looking fit to burst.  
He instantly retreated to his ninja face, as he liked calling it, to hide his surprise and act happy and cheerful.  
"You must be little Kida Hatake." He greeted her kindly, shaking her small hand playfully while she looked fit to faint from being so close to her hero.  
"U-um, mr. Yondaime, sir?" She started, stammering her way through her request. "W-would y-y-you sign my b-book?" She closed her eyes and thrust out her book hopefully.

Minato once again hid his surprise and anger at seeing her and signed the book quickly. "Here you are!" He said, handing it back to his own daughter.  
Kida's eyes positively glittered like stars and her smile basked them all in a wonderful warmth. Kakashi smiled proudly to see his sensei getting along so well with his daughter.  
"Minato-sensei, would you like to see her nodachi?" He asked pleasantly.

LINE BREAK RIGHT HERE BABY!

It was now late in the day, the Sun had set long ago. Minato sat at his desk and thought back to his feelings upon seeing his daughter Naru, Kida, he reminded himself, walk into his office.  
He was still bitter about Kushina's death, and seeing a younger version of his lost love only made the anger rise again.  
The only difference was the whisker marks, Kushina hadn't had those.  
Were they because of being a jinchuriki at such a young age? He pondered over this, and eventually concluded he couldn't remember her having such strange markings when she was born.

What worried him though, is if she got Kushina's bloodline trait. Uzumaki's had the ability to sever their souls and put them into a physical body.  
This body usually manifested as an animal. He worried that her animal would be a fox, because of the thing sealed inside.  
What if the fox was the one released? What would he do then? The only way to kill a soul animal was to kill the owner.  
Another worrying question; When would the soul animal appear? And how?  
It seemed, he could not express his concerns for fear of revealing the girl's heritage. And that was something, he refused to do.  
Not for the jailer of the monster who killed his men, nor for the daughter who had caused Kushina's death.

BREAK BREAK BREAK BREAK BREAK BREAK BREAK BREAK...I THINK YOU GOT IT NOW.

For five years Kida lived and trained happily as a Hatake. For five long years, Minato was forced to hide his hatred for the girl who was innocence incarnate.  
For five years, Kakashi and Iruka both watched over and loved their daughter. And now, five years later, things are starting to change.

Kida was sitting home alone, waiting for her parents to come back from the hospital. Kaa-san had been feeling ill for the last two weeks now, and they were going to go make her better at the doctor's.  
She was worried that her Kaa-san was sick, and at such a bad time too. School would start again soon and this year she was joining the academy, but her kaa-san was sick a week before the first day!  
As she swung her legs over the edge of her bed and reread the book that had remained her favorite unchallenged, the differences in her appearance were astounding.

Her fiery red hair had grown out, now it reached her shoulder blades, and she left it hanging loose. On her face she wore a blue face mask, like the one her tou-san wore.  
She wore a dark blue long and wide rimmed sleeved shirt that nearly reached her thighs. While it was large, it also had many pockets that she could put things in.  
Things like sealing scrolls, food, money, spare weapons, and on occasion, her white fang. The white fang was passed down to the eldest Hatake for generations, and her tou-san had given it to her as an early birthday present when he had to leave a week before her birthday on a mission last year.

She also wore a bright red jacket with the front unzipped, and regulation ninja pants with kunai holster and shuriken pouch around her thigh and hip.  
She sighed as she lay her book back down on the bed side table before walking to the full length mirror again. She had to admit, she liked her new shinobi clothes.  
But what she liked the best, was the fox pendant around her neck. The upright fox was a dark red in color, with saphire eyes.  
She didn't remember where or when she'd gotten it. It just seemed like it had been around her neck forever.  
Not that she'd given it much thought anyway.

Her ears pricked up as the door slammed open. Now, slamming of doors meant one of two things in that household. One, bad news, usually meaning Kakashi had come home injured from a mission.  
Two, someone was excited and was letting all their energy show in any way they could, and the door just happened to take the punishment.  
"Kida!" Kakashi called, barely containing his happiness and not wanting to betray the secret.  
Iruka stifled a giggle as a clueless Kida walking into the living room through the sliding door. (It's a traditional japanexe house by the way.)  
"Yes tou-san?" She asked timidly, wondering if she'd done something wrong and mentally going through the happenings of the past week.

A half hour later, Kida squeeled happily and glomped her parents. She was going to be a big sister! She was going to have a little brother or sister to play with!  
"Is it a boy or a girl!" She demanded excitedly from her father's stomache, which she happened to be sitting on while he lay pinned on the floor.  
"We don't know yet." Iruka told her daughter. "We'll know soon enough, and then you can make plans about taking the baby to the park and training and such."

The week passed in a happy haze for Kida as she awaited impatiently for the academy term to start and for her baby brother or sister to be born.  
It was now the first day of school, and she couldn't wait to meet her new teammates. Thankfully, her red face mask hid hear eagerness as her body was perfectly relaxed in much the same stance Kakashi often stood in as she waited outside the doors of the academy.  
"The past is history, the future a mystery, but today is a gift." She recited quietly, thinking of all the gifts she'd gotten in her short life.

With her nodachi tied tightly at her waist and a confident spring in her step that looked more like a skip, she bounced up the stairs to her new classroom.  
(Her teacher will not be Iruka, it will be someone else, but everything else is the same.)  
In room 208, was her new classmates. In it were some of the heirs to some prominent clans. Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyuga, Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, and the one person she would never get along with if her life depended on it,  
Tome Namikaze, son of the Yondaime.  
He had married some time after the Kyubi attack and had had a son before his wife died on a mission.

Being the son of Minato Namikaze, a hero of the Leaf, had inflated Tome's head way past Uchiha and Hyuga standards combined.  
He was also the one person, who got under her skin without fail, everytime they spoke.  
This is why.

"Well if it isn't Whiskers!" Tome cried, seeing her enter silently. "Animals don't belong here, so just scat bitch!"  
The Hatake's symbol was a white wolf, and he had somehow drawn the conclusion that since Kida was a Hatake, she was a female dog, therefore, the nickname bitch.  
And of course, Kida paid him back in kind. "Oh, it's just you." She sighed sadly. "And here I thought it was somebody important. How could I mistake you for someone important?"  
Tome gaped for five seconds until his eight year old brain caught up to the insult. "I'm the son of the Yondaime! You should show me respect bitch!"  
"You call me a bitch, and then ask me to respect you?" She raised a brow challengingly. "And here I thought you'd learned from our past spars. Where does it stand now? 50 to 0?"

Ginka just knew, this was going to be one interesting four years. Kami have mercy, he was going to need it.

ANOTHER BREAK RIGHT ABOUT HERE WOULD BE GOOD!  
LC; First mission a success!  
Naruto; What mission? You've been laying in your bed all day!  
LC; Duh. That was my mission.  
Sasuke; Just give up trying to understand her Naruto.  
Sakura; Yeah, it will only give you a headache.  
LC; Review or else! Kida-chan will come and kick all your butts! 


	2. School days

LC; Chappie two from me to you.  
Naruto; To show only one, we had so much fun.  
Sasuke; Writing this story,  
Sakura; To be very gory.  
LC; Okay enough rhyming, on to the action!  
Disclaimer; If I owned them I'd have something to do, wouldn't I?

Chapter 2; The past is history.

Ginka looked at his new class and sent a prayer to Kami the four years would just fly by already. Not only did he have a dozen clan heirs, but one of them was the Yondaime's!  
Not to mention that class hadn't even started yet and he was desperatly eyeing each and every exit and was ready to make a dash for safety.  
Clearing his throat, he prepared for the ultimate ninja academy teacher jutsu.  
"Big head no jutsu." He whispered.

"GET TO YOUR SEATS!" He bellowed. Eventually it was only Kida who was standing, or really, walking to her seats. Sadly, the only availiable one was next to Tome.  
She looked up from her book and stared coldly at the boy.  
'This is going to be a long day.' Ginka decided.

The council had wanted to merge the Namikaze and Hatake clans, so the two eldest of each were betrothed to each other. Of course, them only being kids, they were kept in the dark.  
The Yondaime made a big fuss about how it wasn't a good idea, but the council over ruled him. Kakashi and Iruka were ready to start fighting for their daughter, but that would've been treason.

"Alright class, today we'll be testing your skills to see where you are in training." He announced. "We'll go out to the dojo for a sparring tournament now."  
He led them to the dojo and had them fighting two a time until only two students were left.  
Kida Hatake had won against Sasuke Uchiha by taunting him until he lost his patience and attacked sloppily. Tome had won against Kiba Inuzuka, and the only reason he had won was because Kiba had sneezed, allowing him to get a lucky hit in.  
Of course, if you told him that, he'd probably yell at you.

"So Whiskers, what did you do to sabotauge the Uchiha?" There was no way a girl could have defeated Sasuke after all. "What, slip something in his breakfast?"  
Kida raised her brow and momentarily lowered her book.  
"First off, if I was able to sneak something in his food, I would have had to break into the Uchiha compound, sneak into his kitchen, and find an oppurtune time to sneak whatever I wanted in his food, all without being seen."  
Tome sweatdropped. He was fairly certain that was the most she'd ever said at one time, and it had all been stupid logic. "Point number two, I've been training since I was three, it's only logical I would be stronger than someone starting at six."  
_Again_ with her logic?

He saw red the moment he realized that the book was once again blocking her face from view, meaning she wasn't taking him seriously.  
This was just a taijutsu spar, meaning weapons were forbidden, but at the moment, he just wanted her to hurt. He, being the hokage's son, had connections, so getting real kunai despite the fact he was just a brand new academy student wasn't hard at all.  
So Kida wasn't the least bit surprised when she heard the clip of him unlocking his kunai pouch.

She hardly moved when the kunai flew at her. For a single moment Tome feared he would actually kill her. So it came as a shock to everyone when she merely tilted her head to one side to allow the kunai to sail by harmlessly.  
"Now, now, teme," She scolded him. "this is a taijutsu match, meaning hand to hand combat. As in, weapons are a big no-no."  
Tome growled before charging the imputent little girl who he secretly blamed whenever his father was dissappointed in him.  
He feinted a punch and instead kicked her legs out from under her.  
She used the momentum of the fall to power her back flip, putting her right at the edge of the ring.

"You gotta be faster than that Teme." She said teme like it was his name. The reason behind the name is when they had been playing together once, he'd accidently mispelled his name when they were writing their names.  
Needless to say, the nickname had stuck.  
The nickname was also the one thing that would drive Tome over the edge faster than any other insult. And that is percisely what it did.  
No sooner had Kida closed her mouth than Tome was running at her, with his fist cocked.  
Kida allowed herself an unseen smirk before deftly sidestepping the attack and pushing Tome over the edge of the circle.  
"I win." She announced after he landed on the ground, with a rather nice_ thump _might she add?

"Winner, Kida Hatake!" Ginka announced to the class. "Congratulations Kida, that was a very good example of playing on your opponent's weaknesses."  
Slowly, he turned to Tome, ready to reprimand the boy with a verbal beating and a slap on the wrist.  
"As for you Tome, hokage's son or not, what you did was disgraceful." He didn't yell, or raise his voice, but every student in the room took him very seriously.  
"This was a taijutsu tournament, meaning no weapons." He continued coldly, eye balling the quaking child. "Yet you purposely threw a kunai at Kida, and had she not dodged, she would have been horribly scarred, or worse."  
Tome could only take so much before he would start yelling again.

"She provoked and insulted me! It wasn't fair!" A small voice in his head told him he'd done the same, with far less effective results, but he chose to ignore it.  
"Tome, I recall you using a very indecent word to describe Kida not half an hour ago." Ginka said coldly. "And if you listened carefully and exammined her language, you would see she wasn't really saying anything too insulting. Mostly she pointed out facts. The only insult I could find was her calling you teme."

Tome fumed for the rest of the school day. Not only did she beat him in taijutsu, but she did it in academics too! Her calm voice next to him made his anger rise even further as she answered a question on what chakra was.  
But no one was perfect. Little Kida had to have a weakness, and he would find it if it was the last thing he did! He watched her the entire day but couldn't find anything that set her off.  
She wasn't bothered with Shino's bugs. No insult sent her into a rage. And if someone stepped on her foot, she acted like she hadn't felt it!  
Tome just knew that he was going to have his work cut out for him to find Hatake's weakness.

At the end of the day, Kida was just about at her limit. Having Tome watch her like she was some strange new toy was disturbing enough, but the fact she learned nothing new also irked her.  
She thought going to the academy garunteed learning new things about being a shinobi. But all she heard was a review of the things Kaa-san had taught her for years!  
The fact that Tome was now following her home made her bad mood complete.

Now, there was one thing that Kida loved to do after a bad day. And that would be to mess with someone important and test out her skills.  
With the stealth of an assassin's daughter, Kida made the seals for a henge while she was walking through a young couple so she appeared to be a young blonde girl.

Tome jumped back onto the roof and searched for the distinguishable red hair before realizing that one moment he had blinked alowed her to get away.  
"Damnit!" He cursed. "I'm going to find her weakness if it's the last thing I do!" He swore to the heaven's.  
"With the way your yelling, it very well may be." Tome jumped about a mile and turned to see the red masked Kida smirking at him.  
The fact he couldn't see the smirk, but_ knew_ it was there, didn't sit well with him.

Kida made it back to the Hatake compound and had to resist the urge to groan as she caught her parents fondling eachother in the hallway.  
"Don't mind me, just a mentally scarred kid coming back from a boring day of school." She sighed, skirting around the edges while her parents merely deepened their kiss.

In her room, she lowered her mask in relief and lowered all the window blinds in the process. Once free from prying eyes she proceded to go about cooling down from her frustrating day.  
She removed from her person several uncomfortable articles that she never left home without. Them being pepper spray, (Her father threatened her that if she ever got caught without it he would ground her till she made ANBU) soilder pills, (Again, her over protective father) Several rolls of bandages, (XP Dear old dad) and a small shuriken sized knife that had been strung around her neck. (You'd be amazed what a tiny little dagger could do to a man.)

As dissappointed as she was in the critia being taught, she knew being in the academy did hold an advantage. It meant she could have an alibi for when she pulled her pranks.  
She had been plotting for a rather nasty one to pull on the Hokage monument for some time now. Her pranks were her idea to keep the ANBU on their toes. It was amazing how slack they could get in times of peace!  
So she figured it was a win win situation. She got to practice her stealth and the ANBU got extra training and the village ended up safer.

She stretched her tired muscles before deciding to go out for some extra training. After all, if she wanted to graduate early then she had to make sure she was up to par.  
Besides, there was no way she'd be able to go four years with Tome in the same building, let alone the same classroom.

She looked down at the biography lying on her bed and made a decision. She would go and buy a new book. She'd long ago memorized everything in it anyway, so she could recite the entirety of it if she wanted to.  
She got some money out of her sealing scroll at the bottom of an old shoebox in her closet and left. Her thoughts wandered though, all the way back to that little shoebox.  
Inside it were her most prized possessions. A blue blanket with a red swirl, a red fox plushie she used to sleep with but had never thrown away, two diaries, and a scroll.

To this day she didn't know where the scroll had come from, or what was inside it. On it, in what she used to think was pretty squiggles, was her name in kanji.  
Well, it was her first name anyway. It said Kida Uzumaki. After some time, she began to wonder if maybe Uzumaki had been her parents' surname.  
However, when she had researched that name two years ago, she'd found nothing on any Uzumakis. Well, except for the passage about the first hokage's wife, who was an Uzumaki.  
However, she was fairly certain she was in no way related to the first's wife.

Her wonderings had brought her to the front of the book store sooner than expected and only the bell on the door could wake her from her ponderings.  
She looked aroung the many aisles of books until she felt the inexplicable draw of one in particular. It had a yellow binding, reminding her of her father's book, but the title was different.  
"Tales of a Gutsy Ninja?" She read, picking up the worn piece of literature. It was covering in a faint layer of dust and had obviously been there a long time. To her amazement, it seemed it had been written by the same man who wrote her father's books.  
Otherwise known as Jaraiya the toad sannin.

Without a second thought she payed for the book along with a scroll with an interesting list of C-level wind jutsu. She left the store feeling slightly curious as to her new choice.  
Instead of going back to her home, where she just knew her parents would be acting out one of the scenes from ICHA ICHA, she went to one of the training grounds.  
It was one used by academy students, and was being used by a single boy at the time. He had long black hair that hung like silk into a low ponytail. And when he turned ever so slightly, she saw his eyes were a milky white.

The boy looked about a year older then her, and from the sweat covering the visible parts of his body, he'd been training for some time now.  
"Yo, Hyuga!" She called out, leaning against a tree, tossing her bag down. "Mind if I join you?"

Neji looked up from where he was practicing against a bandage wrapped log to see a red haired and masked girl with startling blue eyes.  
She was small, though he doubted she was much younger then he. Probably only a year. He'd been in the academy for a year, this was the start of his second. Already he had the reputation of a genius and as such no one wanted to challenge him for fear of being beaten.  
He didn't really care until it started affected his training. Without someone to train against he couldn't accurately judge how much he'd progressed.

"Would you be willing to spar?" He asked her. It was probably only her first year in the academy, so she wouldn't know much, but it never hurt to see how he fared against other possible geniuses.  
"Thought you'd never ask." Kida smirked, taking a relaxed stance.  
Neji raised a brow at the stance before remembering she would only have been in the academy for about a day.

He made the first move, darting forward before quickly ducking down to kick her legs out from under her. Instead of falling victim to gravity however, Kida merely jumped at the last second before sending a roundhouse kick to Neji's head.  
Neji managed to duck to dodge the kick and even got an uneven kick out in the process.  
Kida had to flip backwards in order to avoid that before she took the initiative and charged forward. She cocked her fist back and feinted to the left before aiming her other hand at the right.  
Caught between manuvers, Neji was unable to dodge this one and got caught just above the jaw line.

They seperated to catch their breath. Neji's eyes were shining in anticipation. It had been too long since someone had worn him out so quickly in a fight.  
Kida herself was grinning behind her mask as she began getting pumped for a real fight. No holding back, this boy could handle her level of strength, unlike her peers.  
"So what's your name?" She asked him, before promptly giving her own.  
"Kida Hatake eh?" He repeated, raising a single brow. 'The daughter of the copy cat nin?' "I'm Neji Hyuga."  
She bowed her head respectfully, which he returned, before they again clashed.

The sun was just starting to set, and it found two academy students lying, panting, on the grass in a clearing. Their feet were to eachother, as they had collapsed when facing eachother.  
"Man Neji, you really put me through the ringer." Kida gasped, desperatly trying to give her lungs some much needed oxygen.  
"Your strong for someone who just started at the academy." Neji in turn panted out. It was like this girl was some kind of ticking time bomb! So much destructive power in an unthreatening package!  
"I've been training for a couple years now." She giggled, liking how much emotion she'd gotten out of the Hyuga. Most Hyuga, Hinata being the exception that proved the rule, were stoic and stuck up as a rule.

After making plans to meet again same time tommorrow, the two parted ways. Kida (Thankfully) remembered her bag of books and brought them back to her house, where her parents were (Again, thankfully)_ not _acting their age.  
They seemed to be laughing at a photo album.

"What'cha looking at?" Kida asked lazily, looking over one of her new books. Kakashi grinned when he saw his daughter and motioned for her to come over.  
After doing so she found what was so funny. It seemed they had found a picture of Kakashi's dad as a baby, without any clothes, strutting through the living room for all to see.  
At least, she_ hoped _it was her father's dad. Otherwise she would never be able to look at him the same way again.  
"Please tell me that is the White Fang of the Leaf and that no one else has ever seen this picture." She begged. She'd never live it down if Tome found it.  
"It is my father, and no, no one else has seen it." Kakashi assured her.

Kida made it up to her room and began the debate to see which book she would read first. On one hand, the scroll had jutsu, something she liked and her father refused to teach her. 'Your too young, ha! He was a freakin genin at_ five_!'  
Then on the other hand, this book would probably be good. Her father clearly thought highly of this author as he was never seen without his book. She'd asked to read it once and had gotten the same answer as when she asked for jutsu training. 'Your too young.'  
In the end she chose the book as it was late and would provide good bed time reading material.

She refused to put the book down even when sleep made her eyelids heavy and she started to yawn. It was better than she had expected, though she wondered as to why her father thought she was too young for this author's books.  
She shrugged it off and continued reading about the hero, Naruto, who fought against evil shinobi. Personally, she pictured evil shinobi as ninja wearing long black cloaks.  
That night, she dreamt she was the heroin, battling the forces of evil. All the evil guys took the face of Tome, so it was easy to beat them up and win.

The next morning she read the book again on her way to school. Sure, the academy was a waste of time and she'd much rather stay at home to help her mom, but, and she quote, 'You need to meet kids your own age.'  
Of course, Tome was a year younger than her, so he didn't count, did he? If not, then she could pretend not to know him the whole day.  
The more she thought about the idea, the more promising it seemed to her.  
Yes, she would most likely enjoy watching him squirm as she ignored him. Cue evil laugh.

This time she was second to arrive. Apparently Shikamaru had decided it would be less troublesome to leave his house, (_coughmomcough_) early.  
As such, since he had just woken up and walked all the way there, he wasn't able to immediatly fall back to sleep. So he was _at least _awake when Kida walked through the door with her nose in a book, as usual.  
The other day he had watched her interaction with Tome closely. It was barely noticable, but the two did seem a lot alike. They had the same face shape, eye color, and same height.  
The way they argued with eachother brought to mind a brother and sister rivalry. As far as he and anyone else knew, the Yondaime didn't have an illegitimate kid.  
However, there was a small possibility. After all, thought not many knew, Kida_ was _adopted.

He spent a few more seconds inspecting her stance as she sat next to him before his eyelids began to grow heavy. These thoughts were troublesome and tiring.  
He sighed before relenting and allowing the inevitable happen. He was asleep before his head hit the desk. He would ponder more on this mystery later.

Kida would have to be blind not to notice Shikamaru's gaze, but she kept quiet about it. However, the loud thump of his head hitting the desk made her jump.  
She was just glad no one had been there to see her do it. She smiled ruefully before going back to her favorite chapter. Naruto was fighting with everything he had to defeat the enemy shinobi and protect his village when-  
A loud screeching suddenly registered in her mind and she looked up to an amazing sight.  
Somehow, she'd been so engrossed in her book to notice the time. By now everyone had gotten to class and the screeching was two girls, Sakura and Ino, fighting over who would sit next to Sasuke and Tome.

She looked to her right, and saw Shikamaru, she looked to her left, and saw Tome and Sasuke both sitting side by side next to her.  
All her previous plans to ignore them flew from her mind as she realized how close Tome was to her.  
"Tome, normally I would scold you for cowering at anything at all, however I've heard lots of stories about fangirls and I shall make an exception." She told him, glad for the mask that hid her smirk.  
"I'm not cowering!" He protested. "I'm..." He took a thoughtful expression. "Well, just a little."  
"I'm so glad I don't have any fanboys." Kida sighed, going back to her nice safe book.

Ginka was only on day two for teaching the gaki _(Future genin, future genin, kami help us all_) and he had one thing to say.  
"What did I do to deserve this?" Seriously, he must've pissed off some diety or another to get this fate.  
He pushed those thoughts out of his head and ran a quick survey to see how much damage had been done.

Let's see, Tome and Sasuke both trying to avoid being molested, Kida reading a book, Shikamaru sleeping, Chouji eating from an endless bag of chips (_Where do they come from_!) Kiba yelling about how Tome and Sasuke were both temes, Sakura fighting with Ino over who would sit next to one of the previously mentioned boys, Kida smirking as she watched Tome try to hide behind her, Hinata wisely taking a seat in the far corner to avoid being hurt by the loud crowd, some kids throwing a desk, _wait_, a desk? Shino is playing with his bugs_, no wait_, he's protecting them from Akamaru who seems intent on peeing on them, Kiba isn't noticing what his dog is doing, Shikamaru just woke up and is muttering something, Chouji shrugs and pulls another bag out of _nowhere_! Where is he getting those!

Ginka sighed and closed his eyes, placing hands on hips. He quickly took roll before performing his quickly becoming favorite jutsu, big head no jutsu.  
"SHUT YOUR YAPS AND SIT DOWN!" He ordered harshly.  
Today was just another day in the Leaf. Yep, just another day in Hell.

LINEYEPLINEYEPLINELINELION'SLINELINELINELINE!  
LC; Finally!  
Naruto; You love torturing teachers don't you?  
LC; What was your first clue?  
Sasuke; Making them marry eachother, seriously?  
LC;...First, no one knows their related. Second...GET YOUR MIND OUT OF THE GUTTER!  
Sasuke; It wasn't there! I swear! *Looks frantically for emergency exit*  
LC; Well, review soon!


	3. Fanboys

LC; So bored. Can't concentrate.  
Naruto; You mean you just want to do something else.  
Sasuke; Right?  
LC;...You know way to much about me.  
Sakura; You do write a lot of fics about us.  
Naruto; You can learn a lot about someone by reading their stories.  
Sasuke; Especially when they are on their period whilst writing.  
LC; AGAIN YOU MAKE FUN OF THE CURSE OF THE WOMAN! *Kills Sasuke*  
Disclaimer; No, they are not mine. Wait...so does that mean I can be tried for murder now? WAIT! I didn't do it! I'm Innocent!

Chapter 3; The future a Mystery

What to do when faced with fanboys. One, do not acknowledge, this will only encourage them. Two, do not run, they enjoy a chase and often have better stamina, they will catch you.  
Three, stay calm, they can smell fear.

What she would do without this invaluable wealth of knowledge. For today, on her second day of school, Kida Hatake gained fanboys.  
It was barely noticable, but three boys were staring at her during class that day. At first she chocked it up to curiosity about her mask. But then things got a little more obvious.

"Excuse me, Kida Hatake?" She looked up from her book to see three boys standing in front of her. They looked identical, all with brown hair and grey eyes. Must be siblings. "It's lunch time, aren't you going to eat?"  
Kida gaped when she saw how late it had gotten. She'd been to engrossed in her book. Again! It was better than the biography about the Yondaime!

"Sorry, I didn't notice." She said sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head. "Thank you for dragging me out of the pages of my book."  
One of the boys, Kato, she remembered, sat down next to her to look at the book. "What's it about?" He asked curiously.  
"It's about a ninja who tries to change the way the world thinks about the way of the shinobi." Kida explained happily, showing him the cover.

They talked through lunch, not eating a thing. When classes began again, Kida found herself sandwiched between two of the brothers. Ichi was on her right, he was the eldest. Guta was on her left, he was the youngest. When Tome and Sasuke came in to find the seats safest from fangirls taken, they visibly wilted.  
Without cool Kida to frighten away the fangirls, they would just have to endure.

Ginga didn't know if he should laugh or cry. Kida, for the first time since coming to school that day, didn't have her book in her face.  
Instead she was asleep on the shoulder of one of the civilian students. Her mask was slipping a little, but hung stubbornly to her face. Ginga found himself wondering why she would need to wear a mask anyway. It wasn't like she looked like her father, so enemies wouldn't connect them instantly.  
So why did she wear it!

He gave everyone a pop quiz in the last hour, Kida flew through it before turning it in. Ginga's jaw dropped to the floor boards when he realized she had gotten a perfect score in under ten minutes.  
Kida sat back down in her seat and redrew her book. She hadn't finished it yet, but she was almost to the exciting conclusion. Now if only she could be left alone long enough to finish it. That is all she really wanted right then.

"Kida-chan, can you help me with this?" Clearly peace and quiet were to elude her for a while longer. Looking up from her almost finished book she saw it was Kato asking help with one of the problems.  
"It's a quiz, I'm not suppossed to help you." She told him blatantly, going back to her nice, quiet, book.  
"Kida-chan, do you know the answer to number three?" Again with the interruptions, this time from Guta.  
"It's a quiz, so no." She said bluntly. Just a few more pages. Just a few more!

"Kida-chan, it's time to go home." NO! She had been so_ close_! Just _one_ more page! Damn those annoying boys! She was half tempted to pull out the pepperspray in her pocket.  
"Thanks, Ichi." She sighed, closing her book and gathering her things.  
"Um, Kida-chan, I was wondering if you'd like to go on a date today? You could decide where to go." Kida froze as she came to a startling revelation.  
One: They had been calling her Kida-chan for some time now.  
Two; She had just been asked out on a date.

"Um, sorry, I have to meet up with a friend of mine to spar." She said nervously, trying to come up with some more believable lies. "He's in the year above ours and he's helping me with training. So, uh, I gotta go! Bye!"  
Tome watched as Kida Hatake,_ ice queen_, stuttered uncohrently as she escaped the confines of the three triplets. Oh, this was too good to be true.  
Kida Hatake had_ fanboys_!

Tome ran after his rival with the complete intention of making fun of her until she admitted he was the better shinobi. Of course, he already knew that, but it would be nice to hear it from her.  
However, his plans were thwarted by the three fanboys as they rushed past him, chasing the object of their affection.  
_'On second thought, maybe they can take care of it for me.'_ He thought mischevously._ 'And all I gotta do is show them the way to her house.'_

After doing so, he decided to watch the fireworks from a safe distance. Meaning he retreated a little down the street and sat on a nearby roof to get a good view.  
Now, if only he had some popcorn.

Meanwhile, Kida had just shut the door behind her and was panting in exertion. She'd ran all the way home. Fanboys! Oh the horrors she would have to endure by their hands.  
It was official, she had to graduate before she got raped or something! She was good at fighting but she wasn't physically strong. She didn't even know any good jutsu yet! This was going to be harder than she thought.  
She should really learn to think these things through.

The door bell rang, it's chimes echoeing all through the house. With a feeling of trepidition, Kida slowly opened the door.  
To her absolute horror, she found her fanclub waiting on her doorstep.  
Sure, it was a small fanclub, but she knew it would grow. Soon she would have hordes of boys following her home everyday. Kida reminded herself to breathe or she might faint.  
And fainting in front of rabid fanboys is a big no-no unless one wished to be raped.

"Uh, hey guys, what are you doing here?" Please just be lost. She prayed fervently, glad for the mask that hid her panic.  
"We came to ask if you could help us with our training." Kato told her eagerly. "Please Kida-chan?"  
"I'm sorry, I can't." She lied quickly. "I have a private training session with my dad in a few minutes! Clan techniques and secrets and all that! Sorry!"

On the bright side, the boys left after that with promises to see her the next day. On the down side, they now knew where she lived. Yeah, this day officially sucked. Oh, and they said they would see her tommorrow. Damn!  
Well not she had to find a way to get to the training grounds without meeting up with Tome. There was only one boy in the academy who knew where the Hatake compound was, and that was Tome. Stupid bratty boy! He was behind this hideous travesty! This should count as treason!

Eventually she settled for jumping from roof to roof. She'd have to see about learning that jutsu thing that let her dad stand on walls and cielings and stuff. It would come in handy.  
Ten minutes later she entered the same training ground as before where Neji was waiting.

"What took you so long?" He asked her. He'd been waiting for almost half an hour now! She'd better have a good reason for being so late.  
"Sorry, I had to ditch my new fanclub." Okay, so she had a good reason after all. "It's small now, and I can only pray it stays that way."  
Without wasting any more time, the two began training together in earnest. Neji taught her a method of training that would help her stay ahead of her class. She in turn showed him how to mix his family's style with parts of other styles to make it harder to counter.

Soon it was late afternoon and the two had just finished a trying spar. They sat not a few feet from each other, catching their breath.  
"Hey Neji, your really strong, do you have any fangirls?" Kida asked curiously. "How do you escape them? I may need a few tips."  
"The number one key is to act like you don't care and practice your stealth until your a master." He stated wisely. "Other than that, do not wear anything like perfume, they can track scents better than the Inuzuka."  
Kida shuddered at the mental picture but nodded her thanks for the advice.

On her way home, Kida ran into a rat. Or rather, a spoiled little rich boy. "So Kida-chan," He said mockingly. "How was your date with the fearsome threesome?"  
"Oh, it's you Teme." She sighed. "Geez, seems everywhere I go I run into trash. They should really clean up the streets."  
Leaving her younger rival to fume as he tried to figure out if he'd been insulted or not, Kida continued home. If only she could learn more jutsu, like the clone jutsu.  
Then she could graduate early and be well away from Teme and his annoying Uchiha companion.

Later on, Tome met up with Sasuke for their own training session. "Why do you bother with her anyway?" Sasuke asked disinterestedly.  
"My father has been pushing me to be better than her for as long as I can remember." He said glumly, completely different from his former attitude. "He claims that he doesn't want his student's daughter to beat his son, but I know there's something more."

Sasuke had never really disliked the Hatake, but his friend did. Not in the sense of deep hatred, but more of jealously. Everything Kida had, Tome didn't.  
He was the apple of the village's eye, the Namikaze prodigy. But he only had one friend, Sasuke. They were a lot alike in some aspects, different in others.  
Sasuke could let loose a little when he was with Tome. After the massacre, he'd trained solely by himself until Tome had one day asked him to spar.

From that day on, the two had been inseperable. Best friends and shinobi to be. Tome told all of his problems to Sasuke knowing his friend would never betray his trust.  
In turn, Sasuke acted like the kid he really was without fear of Tome making fun of him or thinking of him any less. He didn't really care all to much for ramen, but he treated Tome to it. And in turn Tome always carried a box of pocky, just in case he was hit with a sudden urge to knaw on some of the delicious stick treats.

They fit eachother well, Tome and Sasuke. Though, occasionally they did have their arguements.  
"Why not just swallow your pride and ask your dad why he favors her so much?" Sasuke suggested inbetween pants as he performed another kata.  
"You know why!" Tome growled angrily, punching the stump. "He would deny it and tell me to train harder! I hate it when he does that! He's always acting so dissappointed if I don't get a new move right away! Kida's not perfect either! So what does it matter?"

Sasuke had felt the same way about his own father at one point. He knew Tome didn't really hate his father, he was just sad and confused and wanted someone to blame.  
For him it had been Itachi, but for Tome, it was Kida Hatake. Sighing to himself he continued with his training, keeping one ear on his friend.

Back at her own house, Kida ran into her kaa-san. "Kaa-san, where are you going now? It's getting late out." Kida asked, pulling down her mask to talk more clearly.  
"Oh we don't have any pickles so I'm running out to get some!" Oh, so this was the weird craving her tou-san had warned her about.  
"Okay, can I come?" She asked hopefully. It would be better than just sitting home alone for the rest of the day.  
"Sure, let's go." Iruka told her daughter, heading out the door.

"Kaa-san, can you teach me the other academy jutsu?" Kida asked, her mask firmly back in place. "I'm not learning anything new and I want to graduate! I want to be a ninja like you and tou-san!"  
"Kida, I thought we told you." Iruka said confusedly. "They abolished the early graduation program because it kept turning out unstable shinobi."  
Kida was devestated. That meant she had to spend the next four years with Tome! In the same class room!

In the hokage tower, Minato sat filling out his paperwork. Or rather, trying to find new and creative ways to make it all just blow away that couldn't be connected to him. Exploding tags were to loud, so he needed something better. Hmm, a real puzzler.  
"Minato-sensei, just do the paperwork already." Kakashi coaxed tiredly. "It's not just going to dissappear into thin air."  
Although, from the way Minato was glaring at it, he may have been trying to get it to disintegrate.

"Hey Kakashi, how's your wife been doing?" Minato changed the subject to one that couldn't lead back to paperwork. "The baby coming along nicely?"  
"Yes, everything is going well so far." Kakashi assured his sensei happily, momentarily lowering his book. "Though, the constant pickle and whip cream cravings are driving me up the wall."  
Minato chuckled as he thought of Kushina when she had been having cravings. Always strawberries. And if they didn't have any, she would go on a rampage until someone gave her some.

Thoughts of Kushina brought on an unexplained sour mood. Despite his attempts to forget about her and move on, it seemed hopeless. Women like Kushina came around once in a life time.  
Certainly Katara's death during birth had not hurt so much. In fact, it was rare he thought of his son's mother at all. Now if only he could figure out what he did so that he could apply the same thing to Kushina.

"Sensei, are you alright?" Minato looked up to see his student looking at him worredly. He sighed before pushing his chair back away from his desk.  
"I've just been doing too much thinking as is healthy." He joked, not wanting to bring up the subject. He might say too much.  
"You've been spacing out a lot lately." Kakashi observed, lowering his book. "I hope your not getting sick. Imagine the sheer amount of papers waiting for you if you were."  
Both shuddered before Minato renewed his effort to finish the work in time to eat dinner with his son.

A short nine months after the council had forced him to remarry, he had been gifted with a son. He had been planning to name him Naruto, as a tribute to his sensei, but Jiraya had talked him out of it.  
"Your daughter was named Naru, you shouldn't forget what you have lost and try to replace it with something new." He had advised him wisely. In the end, his son had been named Tome, after his grandfather.  
He loved his son, he really did. But he felt guilty about Kushina and _Naru_'s deaths. He felt bad about betraying his wife.

As for Naru, or Kida, he wasn't sure how he felt about her anymore. He was still angry towards the attack, of course. However, he better than any other should know that she wasn't the demon. So why did it hurt so much to see her? Everytime Kakashi brought her over to the house to play with Tome, he had hidden behind his shinobi mask.  
She was becoming more and more like Kushina every day. Her red hair, her eye and nose shape, and even the little quirks. The only thing remotely his were the eyes and face shape, and those could be explained away.

She still had not unlocked her blood line trait, and he prayed she never would. That would be a little harder to explain away. Sure, the fact he and Kushina had been married hadn't been wildley known, but his student knew.  
And Jiraya knew of course. But neither had seen her the day she'd been born. Only Sarutobi had, and he was dead. His predecessor would be turning in his grave if he knew how Minato was treating his daughter.  
But it hurt too much.

Back with Kida and her mother, the two walked calmly through the streets of the market. From time to time they would pause to look at something through a window.  
"Kaa-san, didn't tou-san graduate at five?" She questioned stubbornly. "He isn't unstable! Lazy, always late, and sometimes rude, but not unstable."  
"Yes but that's one out of a lot." Iruka said patiently, keeping an eye out for the pickle vendor. "Itachi killed his entire clan, Orochimaru left the village after conducting awful experiments, and dozens of other shinobi throughout history as well."

Grumbling all the while, Kida followed her mother to the grocery store to finally procure some pickles. Only now did she allow herself to be distracted with thoughts of her baby brother or sister.  
Sure, she'd always carried a ninjato since the age of three, but she hadn't seriously trained in it until a year ago. She hadn't really done any real training beyond ninja hide and seek back then. Now however, she would have to step up her training.  
Then when her baby brother or sister could walk and talk, she'd start them training!

The two walked home in comfortable silence, carrying a few bags each. "Kida, you seem awfully quiet, is something wrong?" Iruka asked, concerned for her daughter.  
"I'm trying to think of a way to avoid my new fanclub." Kida confessed uncomfortably. "It's small now, but these things tend to grow if left unchecked and I have no idea how to nip it in the bud."  
Iruka thought about it for a minute before thinking of something. "You could try telling the boys your not interested. The direct approach usually works in situations like these."

Kida thought about what she would say the next day, unaware of plans that were going on just a few streets away. In the Sautome house, the three triplet boys were devising their own plans.  
"So first, Kuta will meet with her on the corner on the way to school." Ichi told them. "Then at school, she'll sit next to Guta until the final bell. After which, I'll walk her home. Agreed?" The boys nodded their assent and began individually planning how to win the heart of their shared crush.

At home, Kida finally finished her book. Naruto had managed to finally defeat the evil of the shinobi world and peace was wrought throughout the land.  
If only life were as simple as a book. If you didn't like the way a book was going, you could shut it and then open it again.  
But if you shut the cover on life, you could never reopen it. It's a one time gig.  
With these serious thoughts in her head, it wasn't really surprising that Kida had such a strange dream.  
It wasn't a nightmare, but it wasn't normal.

'TYOUSURPRISEDNOWHOWDOYALIKEIT!  
LC; Okay, here's chapter three of Kida HUN!  
Naruto; If you can guess what HUN stands for, you win a prize!  
Sasuke; Which is a special request for a poem for any anime she's already written for.  
LC; Check my profile if you want to know what else I've got!  
Naruto; And please, pray for my immortal soul.  
Sasuke; He's going to need it since gender switching is a sin in our culture.  
LC; I DON'T CARE! Your a cute girl!  
Naruto; Your an evil witch.  
LC; Who told you!-Um...I mean...no I'm not.


	4. Congrats Graduates

LC; People of the Naruto fandom, I give you Kida Hun chapter 4!  
Naruto; Did you pray for my soul?  
Kami; I got no such prayers. You will go to Hell.  
LC; I'll let you have sneak peeks of my stories if you let Naruto into heaven!  
Kami;...You drive a hard bargain but I am a fan of your stories so...DEAL!  
*Goes back to palace in sky to read new sneak peeks of various fics*  
Naruto; Not even Kami is on my side.  
LC; There there, at least your famous and awesome and strong and awesome and cool and awesome and awesome and awesome.  
Sasuke; Aren't you done yet? The crowd is getting antsy.  
Crowd; WE WANT KIDA AND WE WANT IT NOW! WHAT DO WE WANT? KIDA! WHEN DO WE WANT HER? NOW!  
LC; Oh...your right. On to my story!  
Crowd; !  
Disclaimer; No, I do not own Naruto. If I did I'd be chased by rabid fans every day who would no doubt beg to have me made as a major diety of some sort. Diety of Awesome maybe.

Chapter 4; But the Present is a Gift!

She was walking through the village, fire rained all around yet she felt no fear. Shinobi all rushed around, trying to evacuate villagers and still all she felt was a dreadful calm.  
She walked through the village and into the hogake tower. Inside, she found the Yondaime writing something in a scroll. The scroll seemed to be filled with seal designs, though she didn't know what they did. In on of his arms, was a small pink bundle.

Kida watched and followed as Yondaime ran to meet the dreadful monster attacking their home. The Kyubi no Kitsune in all of it's well earned horror fought the shinobi valiantly trying to save the lives of the villagers.  
Minato summoned forth a giant toad and was joined on it's head by the Sandaime hogake.  
Kida some how found herself close enough to listen.

"Minato, are you sure you can handle this?" The Sandaime asked his successor, he seemed to be staring sadly at the small bundle, which had begun to cry.

"There's no other way. I'm sure Kushina will raise her to be a fine young woman." Minato said tearfully, obviously trying to hold back his sobs of regret.

Kida watched as the Sandaime used a surprise attack to temporaily knock the Yondaime unconcious. He cought the bundle and rushed off to face the demon while the giant toad made sure Minato was safe.  
She found herself following the old man this time as he went to a strange ware house. Inside, a complex seal had been drawn in blood.  
The bundle was placed directly in the middle, and seeing her chance, Kida rushed forward to see the screaming child.

"I am sorry Naru, but you will need both of your parents." The old man said, performing the seal. Kida instinctively knew that this child was the child of Minato and this Kushina woman.  
She could almost see it's face now, just a few more feet.

The seal array lit lick a fuse, causing her to pause in her endeavors. The light died and the old man fell. Into the room burst the Yondaime and he cried out in grief and loss as he saw his old friend die.  
Kida by now had reached the bundle and was stunned to see who the infant was. The child had short red hair, sparkling blue eyes once again hidden by her eyelids, but the feature standing out most fervently in her mind, was the infant's whisker marks.

"Naru, I have subjected you to this fate." He picked up the child and walked away from the battleground. Kida watched him carry the infant to an orphanage and leave her there.  
Kida knew this orphanage. This was where she had been raised. This was where she'd been adopted. This was where her father had left her to fend for herself. Here is where her life began.

Kida woke with a start as the alarm clock on her nightstand cried out to the morning light. Sweat dripped from her brow as she remembered the dream.  
Silent tears rolled down her eyes as she faced the truth. Her hero, the Yondaime hogake that had saved the village, was her father, and he had abandoned her. Her kaa-san came in to find Kida huddled on her bed with her knees tucked to her chest, still crying.

Iruka remembered the times following her adoption when Kida would wake in the morning crying from a nightmare. She hadn't had one in a while, but it seemed they had returned.  
Iruka held her daughter until she stopped crying and then told her to come down for breakfast. Kida gathered herself and dressed into her shinobi clothes, following her kaa-san down the stairs.  
She made a promise that morning, to never again allow herself to be left behind, but to put the past behind her.  
It was a new day.

TIME SKIP; FOUR YEARS LATER; DAY OF GENIN TEST!

The next four years did in fact pass quickly. Between training with her new friends Neji, Lee, Tenten, Hinata, Kiba, Shikamaru, and Chouji, she was amazed to find how fast the time had passed her by. Her fanclub had grown exponantially, to her chagrin, and she now had a gaggle of boys awaiting her every morning to walk her to school.  
It seemed Iruka's advice had had the opposite affect, drawing more boys to her.

"Shika today is the genin exams!" Kida said, unnusually energetic that morning. She was almost bouncing on the balls of her feet waiting for the first bell to ring.  
Shikamaru had only ever seen her this happy and energetic that day Tome had exchanged her tea for coffee. Needless to say it had become a sort of unspoken law to keep Kida as far away from caffeine as humanly possible.

"Kida, please tell me you didn't sneak into your father's coffee!" Kiba said nervously, remembering how Kida had actually shaved Akamaru last time. Speaking of whom, Akamaru was currently hiding inside Kiba's jacket.

"I'm a little excited, not on a sugar rush." Kida sweatdropped. She had changed since first entering the academy. Her red hair she had cut into a cute bob in order to counter the rumors of Sasuke liking girls with long hair. No way was she being accused of liking that emotionally retarded prick.  
She wore a blue sleeve-less top and dark red jean jacket. For pants she wore tight fitting shinobi pants cut at the knees to be made into shorts. Her fox pendant and white fang hung proudly around her neck.  
Tucked into her belt was her ninjato. On her arms she had bandage styled fingerless gloves. With regulation blue shinobi sandals, her look was complete.  
It helped she was a little more 'developed' then most girls.

Shikamaru realised he was staring and turned away from the troublesome girl back to the academy doors, still firmly closed.  
He wondered if he would get on her team. It would make sense since he was the dead last and she was the best kunoichi. Although that would also mean being on the same team as that troublesome Uchiha.  
Looking again at the red haired masked girl, he decided it wouldn't be too troublesome.

Finally the bell rang and the test began. First came the written test, which Kida had no trouble with at all. Next to her sat Sakura Haruno, a girl who had proclaimed Kida as her eternal rival for 'Tome-kun's' nonexistant heart.  
On her other side sat Sasuke, who had by then finished as well and was wondering when he would be able to leave to train.  
Tome sat in the row below as he struggled through his test.  
Why on Earth was the test this hard if they were only going to be genin!

"Alright, next we have the accuracy test." Iruka-sensei announced, proud that her daughter had passed with a higher score than the Uchiha.  
She led them all to an academy training field where a series of targets had been set up. After training with her friend Tenten, Kida had some of the best accuracy in the class. She would pass this with a snap.

"Next, Kida Hatake!" Iruka announced, after Sakura had managed to get five out of ten kunai and six out of ten shuriken. Iruka was not overly optimistic about this year's batch of kunoichi.  
Kida walked up and drew out her kunai and shuriken, an early graduation gift from her tou-san. She threw them with practiced skill and speed, hitting the target nine out of ten with kunai and ten out of ten with shuriken.  
Satisfied with her scores, Kida retrieved her weapons and took her place next to her friend Shikamaru as he waited for his own turn.

"This is so troublesome." Shikamaru muttered, watching other kids one by one fight in the taijutsu tournament for that part of the test. One more after this one and they would see who had passed and who had flunked.  
What seemed more strange though, was the fact Kida seemed almost eager to beat Tome to the ground. It was well known that they almost always ended up fighting in the last round, but before, Kida had always acted like she didn't care.  
Today it seemed like she had some personal grudge.

Most of the genin hopefuls wouldn't be able to tell, but Shikamaru was pretty good at spotting something like this. The underlying tension in the air around her, the way she kept her book firmly in her pouch.  
The subtle tremor that ran through her muscles every time Tome so much as twitched. Yes, she was excited at the prospect of defeating Tome.  
The only question, Shikamaru knew, was why.

Kida had gone through the academy, valiantly ignoring the fact Tome was her half brother. She didn't know how she knew, but she knew that dream was no dream. It was a memory.  
She'd always known before that she felt a rivalry with him, but now that she knew the truth, the little taunts of sibling rivalry stung.

She performed a round house kick right off the back, catching Tome by surprise as he was used to starting their spars. She did not allow him time to recover and kept harrassing him until he reached the edge of the ring.  
The class was awed and confused by this sudden act of aggression and had more than one wondering what prank Tome had pulled to piss Kida off. No one liked an angry Kida Hatake.

Tome didn't know what he'd done this time but he was not about to let her have an easy victory. If he was nothing else, he was stubborn.  
He fought back with fervor, trading punch for kick and back again as he tried to nail a direct hit. Neither was losing ground, but neither were gaining it either. In a surprise move Tome vaulted overhead and managed to block Kida's counterattack with minimal trouble.

Everyone watched in coarse silence as the two 'secret siblings' fought with everything they had. Kida used her reduced stature and speed to her greatest advantage while Tome threw around his height and weight, trying to squash her.  
Tome managed a lucky punch and used this as an oppurtunity to follow up. He threw her over his shoulder and landed with his knee on her back, knocking the breath out of her lungs. He was thinking on what to do next when Kida flipped them over, pinning him to the ground.

"Admit defeat." She urged, a glint in her eye suggesting she didn't really want him to. Kida was drawing on frustration and anger for four years to show Tome once and for all who was strongest.  
She did not want this to end.

Tome got a foot hold and propelled Kida into the air, while she was recovering he stood up on shaky feet and prepared his attack.  
When Kida landed she immediatly jumped back into the air and over his head to avoid the powerful punch he had thrown her way. She waist kicked him from behind, knocking him out of the ring.

"You've gotten stronger, but so have I." She said monotonously. Iruka called the match and congratulated her daughter. Next came the ninjutsu exam and she would graduate.  
The class released a breath none had been aware of holding and followed their sensei back into the building for the final test. Only then would they know who had passed and who had failed.

Kida's turn came sooner than she would have liked, but she couldn't do anything about that. She walked to the next room and began her test.  
She first turned into the Sandaime, who had died in the Kyubi attack. Iruka thought for sure she would have changed into her hero, the Yondaime, but passed her on that part. Next she substituted herself with Mizuki, who had been sitting in a chair behind the desk.

"Alright, now just perform three clones and you pass!" Iruka said excitedly, she could hardly believe her little girl was almost a ninja! She was so proud!  
Kida gulped, her worst technique just had to be on the exam. Iruka knew the clone technique was difficult for Kida, but she also knew with her scores she would pass regardless. Kida however despised stains, and this one on her academy record had always irked her.

"Bunshin jutsu!" She cried, making the handsigns and trying to make her chakra as percise as possible. For her efforts, she was rewarded with two good clones and a sickly one that poofed away right after being made.

"Congratulations Kida-chan, you pass!" Iruka assured her, showing the already filled out exam papers with a big 'pass' stamp on it. "Your scores were good enough to get you through even if you had failed this part."  
Kida heaved a sigh of relief but vowed all the same to figure out a way to perform the clone jutsu. She left the room with her headband tied proudly around her forehead, much to mutual happinness of the boys in the room.

Later, Tome went inside to take the same test. Like Kida he had always had problems with the clone jutsu. Unlike Kida he had not done as well on the exams and was worried about if he would pass or not.  
When he performed the jutsu, all he made was one sickly clone, that lasted five whole seconds. He'd never been so devastated in his life!

"Don't worry Tome, you still have enough credits to pass." He looked up to his 'aunt' with relief. She handed him his new hitaite and he wrapped it tightly around his own head.  
Mizuki watched the exchange with a practiced eye. He knew Tome would do just about anything to surpass Kida, all he had to do was provide the bait.  
He'd get that scroll to his master in no time flat.

He met with Tome later that day as he walked home. "You know Tome, there is a technique that you could learn that is better than regular clones." He informed him pleasantly. "It's inside the ancient Forbidden Scroll in the hogake's office. It sits there as part of a test. If you can manage to take the scroll, you are allowed to learn from it."  
Tome scoffed at the idea, but mentally he was hanging onto every word. If he could get that scroll, he'd be tons better than little Kida.

"I'll let you in on a secret." Mizuki decided, bending close to whisper in his ear. "Kida can not perform the clone jutsu either. If you got the scroll and learned from it, you'd surpass her exponantially."  
Tome's eyes shined as he put together the makings of a plan. Getting into the hogake's office was easy if you knew what to avoid, and if you were hogake's son.  
It would be child's play to get the scroll! He'd do it tonight!

Elsewhere in the village, Kida entered her home to be greeted by her little silver haired brother. His name was Sakumo, after his grandfather, a hero of the village. And like all Hatakes he wore a face mask.

"Onee-chan did you pass!" He asked excitedly, for all his three and a half years he was truly a genius. Heaven forbid he become a second Kakashi. What kind of family was this anyway? Was it normal for little kids at three to talk so fluently? Maybe it was some kind of genetic mutation.

"Of course not, what do you think this thing on my forehead is?" She mocked him playfully, tossing him into the air. "Silly boy, how can you ever be a ninja if you don't know one when you see one?"  
Sakumo ran down the hall, leading his sister out the back door and out into the forest on their lands.

"Come on, I want to watch you train at the secret grounds!" He yelled over his shoulder, urging her on.

LATER THAT SAME NIGHT! HOGAKE TOWER!

Tome sat outside his father's office, in the ventalation shafts. Finally Minato decided to head home for some food and rest.

"Now that Tome is a genin, I guess I can give him some more private training." He pondered aloud. "It's not unusual, he is my son so I'm allowed to train him. I wonder if he'd be strong enough to handle the rasengan yet."  
Tome smiled in anticipation of this new training before dropping into the room as the door snapped shut. There was the scroll, sitting on the shelf with no guards at all.  
Easy pickings for sure.

He took the scroll deep within the forest to the old training ground Mizuki-sensei had told him about. When he got there, he was stunned to see Kida lying in the grass, passed out.  
Approaching quietly, mischeaf in mind, he walked over to the sleeping girl. Tonight was the greatest night of his life. Not only would he get to learn new techniques, but he would finally get to see Kida's face!  
He had never before seen it, but here was his chance and he was not passing it by!

He put the scroll by his side and reached over to her face slowly. He grasped the edge of her mask and froze when she mumbled something in her sleep.  
With sweat dripping from his brow, he slowly drew the mask did she wear the thing anyway? This is it, he was going to see Kida Hatake's face!

"Hey, who are you!" Tome jumped out of his skin and turned around to see Kida's little brother, Sakumo walking over with some food. "Hi Tome!" The little boy greeted him, recognizing his blonde hair.

"Sakumo, what are you and Kida doing here?" Tome asked curiously. Mizuki-sensei said this place wasn't used anymore. Was he lying? (No duh dipshit)

"This is the secret Hatake training ground!" Sakumo said excitedly, gesturing with his free hand, the other stacked high with food. Kida opened her eyes while Tome's back was turned, seizing this as her only chance, she pulled her mask firmly on her nose. No way was she letting Tome see her face! Only lovers or family were allowed to view a Hatake's face.  
And in no way did Tome qualify as the first, and he sure as hell wasn't family either!

"Why are you here with that scroll Teme?" Kida yawned, pretending to have just woken up. She knew that scroll from the many times she had been in the hogake's office, she also knew only jounin were allowed to see inside it.

"I'm going to train with it, duh!" Tome snarked angrily. Everytime it seemed he had one upped her she got lucky and found out or turned out to be stronger! It wasn't fair!  
He'd do anything for the village, yet this lazy GIRL was always better than him! He was the one to be hogake, not her!

THIS IS THE END OF THE CHAPTER I'LL SEE YOU ALL NEXT TIME!  
LC; Okay, now we're really getting into the thick of the story!  
Naruto; I'm liking this so far.  
Sasuke; Not bad but you didn't give me a lot of screen time.  
LC; For this chapter I wanted to focus primarily on Kida and Tome's relationship as rivals.  
Naruto; Why is that so important?  
LC; Did you miss the whole, 'the council is secretly engaging them to be wed' part or should I run that by you again?  
Sasuke; Dobe.  
Naruto; Oh...right. Ew.  
LC; Relax, I don't like incest unless it's in TMNT. 


	5. Foxes and Teams

LC; Wow, another chapter already!

Naruto: Whatever. It's clear you will never let me be male unless it's for yaoi.

LC; Glad you finally caught on after about ten different fics!

Sasuke: Always knew you were slow dobe.

Naruto: Teme!

LC: Okay love birds, quiet down! You'll attract the fangirls!

Both: Shutting up now.

LC: Good, now on to Awesome!

Disclaimer; I do not own Naruto but I do own little Sakumo. Isn't he cute!

Chapter 5: Forgive Your Enemies

Kida had to almost physically restrain herself from pummeling Tome back into the dirt for the simple fact that he was a complete and total moron.  
He was the Hokage's son! He should know better than taking a scroll that important! Was he brain dead or something, it would answer a lot of questions!

"Tome I can't believe you fell for that! That scroll is meant for only jounin for a reason!" She yelled, finally giving in to the temptation to smash her fist into her half brother's skull.

"It has forbidden jutsu! Jutsu you can die in performing! You absolute numskull!" Sakumo had never seen his sister so angry.  
The poor kid made a note to never anger his sister. He kind of liked being 3-D thank you very much.

Kida had finally finished pounding the blonde boy when she thought of the reason he had taken the scroll.

"Teme, who told you that you could take the scroll and train with it?" She asked, her voice unnaturally calm and her eyes spelling doom.  
She didn't like the blonde boy, but he was a comrade and whoever was guilty must be a traitor.

"Mizuki-sensei, he told me there is a jutsu in here better than the Bunshin jutsu so since I can't do that one I thought I could do the one in here!" He explained, using what she fondly call Tomb Logic.

One day Tome is going to end up in one because of his idiocy, and she hoped she was there to see it.

"You idiot only jounin can train with the jutsu in there!" Kida snapped. How a boy with _his_ father could be so idiotically stupid she didn't know, she was just blessed that she hadn't inherited whatever disease made him that way.

"Why?" One word, a thousand different reasons and come backs Kida could make to scar the newly minted genin.

"They are forbidden, some because of the insane amount of chakra needed, some because they are inhumane or take human sacrifices. Some because they are suicide jutsu." She answered as seriously as she possibly could.

Tome had made what could become known as the biggest mistake of his life. She wasn't heartless, she couldn't just let him to destroy his own life.

"Tome, if they find out you took the scroll, your facing imprisonment and indefinite banning from the shinobi forces, and that only because you're the Hokage's son!" She informed the now pale boy.

"Tome, as much as I would love to see you rot in a jail cell, your family, or as good as." She couldn't believe she was doing this.

"We have to take the scroll back." She almost wanted to slit her own wrists.

"I guess it was too much to hope for." Crap, was Tome aware of that puppy dog face he could pull? Damn, just show it to their enemies and they'd beg to be put out of their misery!  
Does he know he can do that?

'Resist the pout! Come on Kida, you're every fan girl's nightmare! A pout is not going against you!' It was like a train wreck.  
Kida knew she should look away, but her eyes were glued to that impossibly cute face.

"Ugh, stop with the pout! One jutsu, just one and only if I approve of it!" She finally bent under the force of the puppy dog pout, her only known weakness.

Tome smirked as she unraveled the scroll and looked at the first technique.

'Puppy dog pout no jutsu, success.'

Kida grumbled as she read the first jutsu. Low and behold it was the same jutsu Tome had come with the intent to learn.  
The Kage Bunshin jutsu created a physical clone capable of fighting though its main uses are in the more subtle endeavors of ninja. They are useful in that whatever the clone learns the original learns as the clone dispels. As such and for the reasons above, the clones can sometimes be used to further one's training, though the physical aspects of training must be performed solely by the original themselves.

Kida had to admit, when Tome picked a jutsu, he at least picked a useful one. The only dangers of this jutsu were the amount of chakra needed to perform it.  
She and Tome had more chakra than a regular genin so she doubted that chakra exhaustion would be such a big worry for them though.

"Alright Tome, looks like this one is safe enough. You just have to remember not to make too many at once because it takes a lot of chakra." She began helping him learn the technique as the time went on.

Sakumo fell asleep leaning against the run down hut, completely unaware of the importance that scroll held for the village.  
He would be in for a surprise.

Thanks to Kida's analytical mind and their inexhaustible chakra they managed to learn the jutsu in record time, just a few hours.

"Mizuki-sensei will be here in half an hour." Tome panted, sitting on his rear end after finally mastering the jutsu.

"We'll need a plan to get rid of him, preferably by capturing him alive." Kida murmured, already thinking of several strategies.  
And so was born the most unholy alliances of that of the Hatake and Namikaze heirs. May they have mercy on our immortal souls.

_Later_

Mizuki had to admit, the kid had done better than expected. Not only bypassing the yellow flash himself but the ANBU guarding the scroll as well.  
He felt a little bad about having to kill the Hokage's son but he killed those feelings. Besides, the kid was a brat anyway, unworthy of being the Hokage's son.

He made it to the training ground he had found a week ago to find not one brat, but three of them in the clearing!  
What was worse perhaps was that the two other brats were the Hatake siblings, as shown by the face masks. Things just got more complicated.

Mizuki jumped down to the clearing and took in the surprised looks of the genin and the still slumbering form of the younger Hatake.

"Good job, Tome, so did you learn a new jutsu from the scroll yet?" He asked kindly.

He was surprised alright when a hail of shuriken flew from the hut straight at him.

Kida used the kunai in her hand to cut a wire that was connected to another trap. Once Mizuki was in the right place for it to work, he was bombarded with pepper smoke bombs.  
The coughing and wheezing of her latest victim was like music to her ears.

"Give up sensei, you are a traitor to Konoha and as responsible shinobi it is our duty to capture you!" Tome actually sounded serious, something almost unheard of.  
Who knew he could actually sound intimidating?

"So you figured it out but only enlisted the help of the Hatake brats, is that it?" Mizuki drew out one of his fuma shuriken and took aim.

"Too bad you're all going to die here!" He yelled, throwing the shuriken straight for Kida first so that it could turn around in a boomerang manner and get Tome on the return trip.  
It didn't get that far.

They hadn't thought of this! Kida watched as the shuriken seemed to slow down. She had to move! She tried to move her legs but it seemed like they were frozen.

'Is this it? Is this how I'm going to die?' The real world vanished to be replaced with a wet sewer. Kida almost lost her balance at the sudden change of scenery.

"Why do I feel like I'm in a bad horror flick?" She asked aloud, slowly walking down the tunnel.

"**Come to me Gaki, it's time we meet."** In any normal situation Kida would turn and walk in the opposite direction.

This was not a normal situation.

Kida walked into a large room where the fourth wall turned out to be a large cage. On the bars was a slip of paper with the word 'seal' written in bold kanji.  
It was what was within the cage though that sent chills racing up and down her spine.

"**So this is my vessel, a little girl."** It was big. It was red. It had bunny like ears. It suddenly looked pissed.

"**They are not BUNNY EARS!"** Crap, it can read minds? She was screwed.

"Fine, they aren't bunny ears." She paused before continuing. "They're just mutated."

"**Damn brat, if I could get out of this cage I would feast on your marrow!"** So if she was right in assuming this was her mind, could she-?

"**Don't you dare-!"** Too late, he was now sitting in what appeared to be the typical teen girl bedroom, sitting on a pile of cute stuffed animals, while he was a chibi stuffed version of himself.

"**Listen brat, we don't have time to joke around. You are going to die unless you take some of my power to get rid of the danger."** Obviously this intense and serious moment was completely ruined when the fox accidently stepped on another toy.

This toy happened to have a squeaker.

"Wait so you can give me chakra? Well what are we waiting for then?" Kida was glad for the mask hiding the smug smile she held at the kitsune's plight.

"**Fine brat, but know you asked for this." **With that, a red fog enveloped her senses and she was pushed back into the real world.

With the fuma shuriken less than two feet in front of her Kida did the first thing to come to mind, punch the threat.

It turned out that punching the problem was the right course of action as the shuriken took a sharp turn to embed itself in the ground at her feet, narrowly avoiding her toes.

Kida picked up the shuriken, and using the strength the red chakra gifted her with, flung it back at the stunned chunin.

"If you try to lay a single finger on my friends, I'll kill you!" She promised. This traitor was going down. This traitor was going six _hundred_ feet under!

"Tome, let's show him out new jutsu!" Tome grinned back at her and they instantaneously formed the cross sign for the jutsu.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Thousands of Kidas and Tomes appeared from thin air in a great cloud of smoke and fog.  
Which, when cleared, showed one of the Namikaze or Hatake in any free space possible in the entire training area.

With an almighty cry all hell broke loose.

Not even ten minutes later all that remained was the two original genin. Tome, in true childlike behavior, was busy poking Mizuki's twitching form with a stick.  
Kida had sent Sakumo back home and was now rolling up the scroll to be returned.

"Come on, if we hurry no one will know it was missing." She had to physically pull Tome away from the incapacitated chunin before he would come with her.

_The Next Day_

Tome walked to the academy to learn what team he would be on. He felt bad about lying to his dad, so in a way to make up for it without getting Kida in trouble too, he had turned down special training.

_Flashback_

"_Tome, now that you're a genin, how would you feel about a little one on one training?" Tome gasped. He looked up at his father and saw him smiling happily, his smile filled with pride._

_He was going to _hate_ himself for what he was about to say._

"_About that dad, I don't want special training. Not yet anyway." He said it slowly, relishing in his own self loathing._

"_I want to be strong in my own right first, before I try using your moves." If anything, his father looked even prouder._

_Flashback end_

Kida sat in the usual front row. Sasuke sat next to the window and Tome on his right. Kida blocked the fangirls from getting in on the last seat.  
As per usual, all of them were dead to the world. Sasuke through his normal morning brooding period, Tome through sleep, and Kida through her book.

Iruka looked over the class of graduates before clearing her throat and lifting the clipboard with all the teams listed on it.

"Today you are genin, the lowest of the low." She started.

"You face the worst of missions as you continue to grow. As you travel on your journey to become great Konoha shinobi and kunoichi, ninja we can be proud of, I hope you remember to cultivate your will of fire."

"Team one will be…" She listed the teams and sensei of many no name students until reaching team seven.

"Team seven will be Kida Hatake," Cue girl looking up from book.

"Tome Namikaze," Cue read head girl thumping head against desk.

"And Shino Aburame." Cue girl heaving relieved sigh.

If Kida had been saddled with king fool and king emo she would have retired as a shinobi after exactly one day of active duty.  
That would certainly have set a new record.

"Your jounin sensei will be Asuma Sarutobi." Iruka went on, sending a sympathetic look to her daughter.  
The council members had practically ordered this team to be made in order to get the betrothed to become closer.  
Somehow Iruka doubted that they'd get closer. Kida would probably kill Tome after about a week.  
Even her daughter had her limits.

"Team eight will be Hinata Hyuga, Kiba Inuzuka, and Sakura Haruno. Your jounin sensei will be Kakashi Hatake." She listed the next team quickly, hoping to avoid the screech of the fangirls', with no luck.

"Why am I on the team with that loud mouth Inuzuka?" Sakura demanded of her sensei.

"Sakura, your mental scores were right below Kida's, however your physical scores were the bottom of the class. We put you where you would fit best." Iruka explained patiently.

"Now, Shikamaru Nara, Ino Yamanaka, and Chouji Akimichi will be team ten. Your jounin sensei will be Kurenai Yuhi." She heaved a sigh of relief. Even if none of them passed their instructors' tests, she wouldn't have to deal with this particular bunch again.

"Now, you have the lunch period to get to know your teammates better, so don't waste it." She advised, walking out of the room to freedom.

"Your jounin sensei will be here to pick you up afterwards!" She called over her shoulder, escaping to go home early today to make sure her baby boy was alright with being all alone.  
He was only three and a half years old after all.

Kida picked up her bento and walked over to where Shino was sitting at his desk.

"Yo, you mind if I join you?" She greeted him casually.

"Not at all." Shino answered politely. Kida sat down next to him and began to eat her lunch in relative silence.

Tome scoffing at the idea of 'getting to know' his teammates left with his best friend Sasuke to avoid their fangirls.  
Eventually everyone dwindled away to eat outside, leaving the Hatake and Aburame to eat alone.

"I was half worried they'd set me with both Teme and Sasuke. I'm glad to see my fears were unfounded. I think I can get along with you just fine." Kida said slowly, putting her feet on the desk and reclining with her favorite book.

"I as well am glad the hokage was logical in his team choices." This Kida translated to mean, 'I'm glad too', if in more complicated format.

The lunch period ended and students came back in to meet their new sensei. When the jounin came in, it was to something akin to utter chaos.

Fangirls and fan boys were bidding their tear-filled fare wells to their true loves respectively. Enough said.

"Team seven come with me!" He had a goatee, cigarette, and a red on white sash around his waist.  
Team seven got up and obediently followed their sensei to a barbeque shop for their proper meeting.

"Alright, why don't we introduce ourselves?" He asked rhetorically. "State your name, skills, hobbies, families, and reason for becoming shinobi."

"Sarutobi-sensei wouldn't make more sense for you to introduce yourself to us first?" Kida asked, her eyes still travelling the words of the page she was currently on.  
Naruto had just found the secret base of the enemy nin and was closing in when-!

"I guess you're right. I'm Asuma Sarutobi, I'm a jounin and use mainly wind type jutsu and use my trench knives at a masterful level. My hobbies are playing shogi and chilling after a day of missions." He paused before going on, eager to see their reactions.

"I'm the son of the Sandaime, who died in the Kyubi attack. My only remaining family member is my nephew Konohamaru, an academy student."

"I became a shinobi to compete with my elder brother originally." He admitted, somewhat sheepishly as he remembered his thick headedness of his youth.

"Blondie, your go." He relinquished the spotlight just in time to push the kage's son out in the open for all to see.  
The man was a sadist.

"I'm Tome Namikaze, a genin. I know the academy techniques and kage Bunshin. My hobbies are pulling pranks and my family is the Yondaime and my mom. I became a shinobi to step out of my dad's shadow." He stopped talking when the food arrived and filled the empty cavern in his head with as much cooked meat as humanely possible.

"Alright trench coat, why don't you go next?" Kida could almost swear she heard a unhappy buzzing sound from the trench coat comment, but didn't mention it.

"Shino Aburame, genin. My skills lie mostly with my clan's kikai bugs. My hobbies are trying to find new species of bugs. My family is the entire Aburame clan and their insects. I became a shinobi to follow in my father's footsteps." Both Tome and Kida were certain that was the most the sun glasses wearing boy had ever said, ever.

"That leaves me. Kida Hatake, newly minted genin. I think fast on my feet and can fight with nodachi and naginata at a proficient level. My hobbies are reading and training. My family is my father, mother, and little brother. I became a kunoichi because it was expected of me." All this while not once looking up from her book, Asuma noticed.  
From the monotonous level of her voice, he had to wonder if she was reading _and_ speaking at the same time.

"Alright, I think I can work with you. After you pass your real test we'll see about getting a firmer grasp on your basics-" He didn't get any farther.

"Nani!" Tome screamed. "What do you mean by 'real test'?" Darn, Asuma had been hoping he wouldn't notice or hadn't been listening.  
Kakashi must have all the luck. He hadn't even met _his_ team yet!

"The exam you took to become genin that was just to weed out the ones with no hope." Asuma elaborated.

"This test is given by each individual instructor to see whether you become real genin or not." Tome's jaw was on the ground, Shino's eyebrows were raised by about a millimeter, but Kida had the most surprising reaction.

"Did you say something?" Cue anime face fault of magnificent proportions.

Somehow, Asuma knew teaching Kakashi Hatake's daughter was going to be more stressful than teaching the hokage's son.  
What had this smoke addicted jounin gotten himself into?

"Meet at training ground seven for your test at about noon." He left money to pay for the tab and walked out of the restaurant before he lost the last of his mind.

He wished his dad was still around, he could use some advice.

Kida walked down the street about half an hour later, when she decided to go see the Yondaime. Now that she was a genin, maybe she could get some answers.  
She decided to just tell him she had met the Kyubi and see where that got her before she started accusing the most powerful shinobi in the village. She had just started her career, no way did she want it to end so quickly.

THIS IS THE END OF THE CHAPTER NOW GO AWAY SOLICITORS!

LC; Okay, this chap is up for wraps!

Naruto; Yay, now she's going to confirm if he's her father or not!

Sasuke; When will she unlock her bloodline limit?

LC; I don't know.

Naruto; How do you not know? You're the one writing this!

LC; Yeah, but it's mostly writing itself. I'm only pressing randomly colored buttons, see?

Both; *Look at her type with eyes closed and watch words appear on screen* Wow.

LC; Yeah I know, right?


	6. Half Truths and Jokes

LC; Okay, now for another chapter of Kida HUN.

Naruto; No one has yet to figure out what the HUN stands for yet.

Sasuke; We all thought it was obvious.

LC; Seriously people, it's not that hard.

Naruto; *Looks at LC* Are you feeling okay? Your usually a lot more energetic.

LC; I'm too sad to be happy today.

Sasuke; Why are you sad?

LC; Because I just realized summer is more or less over for me and I only have a month and ten days before getting back to school.

Naruto; That sucks.

LC; I know right?

Disclaimer; I do not own Naruto! I do however own Tome! He's not as awesome though.

Chapter 6; It messes with their heads.

Kida stood outside the Hokage tower trying to gain the courage to go inside. On the one hand, this could go well and it could turn out she was wrong about being his daughter.  
On the other, he might just kill her on principle.

Shaking her head Kida put her book into her shuriken pouch and went through the door. At least if it was the latter she would die knowing the answer.

"Come in." The call was all to soon for her as she waited outside the Hokage's office.

Kida stepped in and closed the door behind her.

"Kida, what are you doing here?" Minato asked, his shinobi face on his features. Kida swallowed her doubt and opened her mouth.

"Yondaime-sama, I wanted to ask you something." Internally Kida was shaking like a leaf, but on the outside she was as cool as ever.

"Oh your probably wondering about the team placements right?" She was so tempted to just say yes and leave with her dignity intact.

"No, I wanted to ask," She paused, trying to find the right words.

"I know about the Kyubi." Inwardly wincing at how blunt the statement sounded, even to her ears, she awaited his response.

Minato had honestly hoped this day would never come. No one knew that a jinchuriki had been made but him.  
Just like no one knew he had a daughter before his son.

"How did you find out?" He didn't bother denying it, that would have only wasted time. He could see it in her eyes, she was questioning everything she knew now.  
There was something else as well, a darker glint to her eyes. He remembered seeing that glint in someone else's eye, and he prayed he hadn't given the village a new enemy.

"I fell asleep the other night and woke up in a sewer like place. At first, I thought I was dreaming." She said hesitantly, trying to think of a way to make it believable.

"But then I met _it. _I met the fox." He could just barely see the slight twitch in her hand, like she was trying to resist clenching her hands in anger.

"Twelve, almost thirteen years ago, you know the Kyubi no Kitsune attacked the village and the Sandaime sacrificed his life to save us all." He said slowly.  
If he was right about this, he wouldn't have to deal with any of the backlash.

"However, a tailed beast, cannot be killed. It can be sealed though." Here Kida placed a hand on her stomach.

"An infant was found, born on the same day, and the demon sealed within. It had to be an infant." His voice had cracked a little, thinking of that day.

"It had to be someone who's chakra pathways were not developed enough to refuse the demonic chakra." Kida bowed her head.  
Minato thought she was doing it to try to hide tears or maybe a scowl.

Kida did it though, because she was trying to hide a grimace. She hated when people lied or told half truths.

"You were the only one capable at the time of holding the demon." Kida looked up and he could see a new steely look to her eye, as though she were bracing for something.

"What about my parents?" He had to think for a second before realizing she wasn't talking about Kakashi or Iruka, but of her biological parents.

"No one knows who they are." 'Kushina, I'm so sorry.' He could almost feel Kida's sudden change in attitude as she thanked him and left the room quickly.

'Whoever said time heals all wounds lied.' He thought sadly, turning to look out his window.

'How could I have made such a mistake?' He could only hope something would come along to save Kida from the path of darkness before she went too far to turn back.  
He almost hoped his son, Tome, would be the one to pull her back.

Kida did not go home, instead she went to the nearest empty training ground and proceded to do as much damage in as little time as possible.  
He had lied to her! He had looked into her eye, and lied through his teeth!

When she made it home two hours after the Sun set, her tousan was sitting on the couch, apparently waiting for her.

"You didn't show up for dinner." She paused at the doorway to the hall that led to her room.

"I was training. Sorry." She replied. They had always been good to her, and she felt bad about worrying them.

"Is there something you want to talk about?" She didn't cry easily, but now she felt them pricking her eyes.

"Kida-chan, you know nothing you say or do will make us stop loving you. You can tell us what's wrong." The line holding her composure snapped and she turned and ran into the open arms of her tousan, telling him about the meeting with the hokage.

Long after Kida fell asleep Kakashi stood in the doorway of her room, watching over her. Minato hadn't told him of this, something he should have known.  
He narrowed his eyes as he recalled one conversation with his sensei that he hadn't understood at the time.

_Flashback no Jutsu!_

"Kida is very smart for her age. She's also managed to unlock her chakra already as well." Kakashi had been chatting with his sensei at his manor, helping the blonde man to care for his three year old son.

"Hard to believe it's been a year since you adopted her." Minato chuckled. He remembered the little girl asking for his autograph and the amount of sake he had drunken later that night to forget another red head.

"Kakashi, you should be careful with her chakra training." He wasn't sure, with how young she was, that she could stop demonic chakra from seeping through the seal when she called on her own chakra.

"Why is that? My father started me just as young." Then again, he was a Hatake and early training was mandatory to control the White chakra.

"Her pathways will still be growing, you don't want to accidently damage them." Kakashi stared at that comment.  
At four her pathways should be dormant until her training to be a shinobi at the academy. They shouldn't still be growing.

"Minato-sensei, what do you mean by that?" It was like his sensei knew something he didn't.

"Have you ever felt anything abnormal about her chakra?" The man asked him seriously.

"Well, there's a lot more of it than most four year olds have." That was a bit of an understatement. She had more than some academy students.

"Just be careful Kakashi."

_Flashback no Jutsu! Kai!_

Maybe his sensei had been trying to subtly warn him about the Kyubi's chakra. Why didn't he just come out and say it?  
Had it been because his son was in the same room?

Kakashi resolved to find out the next day. He had suddenly found a reason to be late that didn't involve Iruka-chan or porn!

_The next day, 1100._

Kida woke up an hour before she had to meet her sensei and team. Going through her morning ritual still half asleep, she went over all that happened yesterday.  
It had been a long time since she fell asleep in her tousan's arms. Longer since it had been while crying.

"Nee-chan, why are you still here? Don't you got ninja stuff to do?" Kida chuckled as she finished off the sandwhich she'd been eating before answering.

"I don't have a meeting until noon." She answered her little brother.

"Kaa-san's taking me to the park to play with Shika-chan." Shika Aburame was the younger sister of her new teammate, Shino Aburame.

"That reminds me, I'm on the same team as Shika's big brother." She said casually. On the down side, she was also on the same team as Teme.

"Have fun Nee-chan!" Sakumo called to her as he left with Iruka for the park. Kida, still having thirty minutes before she had to meet her team decided to spend it at the new book store that opened across the street.  
Closing her eyes in her signature eye smile she went to see what new books she could find.

As she looked over the books for sale she found several similar to the ones her tousan read. She had never read this series, though they came from the same author, because she was too young to purchase them.  
Deciding to fix that, she performed the henge to change into a young man and bought the first in the series.

ICHA ICHA Paradise.

Along with it, she bought what appeared to be an old journal written by someone named Mito. Curious about the name as it was not very common and the same as the Shodaime's wife, she bought it as well.

"That diary has been in this store for generations but no one has ever bought it before." The clerk told her, ringing up her purchases.

"The paradise book is a good choice as well. Jiraiya-sama is a true genius." He continued.

"Yeah I've read another of his books." Kida said under her disguise.

She left and went to find Neji, who had promised to meet her at their training ground. It had become unofficially theirs since they always met up there to train together.  
Kida wished she was only a year older so she could have graduated with him and get on his team.

She had nothing against Shino, she actually liked him, but Tome was another matter. He was loud, rude, and completely vulgar and obsessed with beating her.  
Although she was curious about Sasuke. He had been taken aside for a private assignment for some reason.  
Maybe he was getting an apprenticeship or something?

"Hello Kida." She looked up from her book and nodded to Neji before tossing her bag of books to the side.

"Ah so this is young Kida Hatake! My eternal rival's daughter who's Flames of Youth have reached my own students!" She could take Lee, he was only moderatly annoying when you knew how to deal with him.  
She wasn't so sure about this giant version of him.

"It is a pleasure to meet you as you start your journey as a Konoha nin and light the Flames of your Youth!" She found herself unable to look away.  
She tried desperatly to latch her eyes back on her book, but it was like they were magnetized for the spandex wearing man.

"Gai-sensei!" Oh dear Kami they weren't going to-!

"Lee-kun!" Shit, she had to look away!

"Gai-sensei!" Tousan had told her horror stories about what was about to happen!

"Lee-kun!" No, it was too late!

Kida suddenly felt sea sick as teacher and student embraced eachother in front of a wave background.

"Is that a genjutsu?" She mumbled.

"If it is, it's S-class since none of us have been able to break it." Neji whispered to her, his bloodline active.

"It happens every time they hug." Tenten said shakily. Two men hugging while wearing spandex in front of a cascading wave was enough to make the strongest of shinobi grow weak at the knees.

"Among other things." Neji said despairingly.

"Want to leave?" Kida asked suddenly, after ten minutes of watching the name calling hug fest.

"Very much." The both answered, following her out of the clearing to saner ground.

By now she only had five minutes to get to training ground seven and she was in a bad mood as she hadn't gotten to spar with Neji or Tenten or even Lee.  
So it was understandable that while they waited for their sensei, Shino wisely kept his distance and held his tongue.

Tome however was not as smart or had as much common sense as the young Aburame. He showed it by trying to provoke Kida into another spar.

"Geez what crawled up your ass and died?" He finally growled, after being ignored and/or scowled at for nearly ten minutes.  
Where was Asuma-sensei anyway?

"Tome, can you feel that?" Shino looked over at the bickering duo, wondering what she meant.

"Feel what?" Tome replied, thinking she felt someone's presence or something. Maybe it was their sensei.

"The general IQ in the area dropping every time you open your mouth." She snapped.

As per usual, it took another five minutes before he realized he had been insulted and told to shut up all in one.

"Hey!" Asuma wisely chose to appear at that moment to prevent the maiming that would follow.

"Sorry I'm late, I was with my nephew Konohamaru and lost track of time!" He apologized hastily.

"I thought it was only tousan who was pathologically late." Kida mumbled as she read her new book.

Asuma saw it was the same one Kakashi carried and wondered if she knew what it was. He waited for another twenty seconds before Kida got to the first lemon scene and proceded to burn the book using a small fireball jutsu.

"I never thought the books tousan read were so perverted." She was glad for the mask covering her blush.  
She'd have words with her tousan later today but for now she had a test to pass.

"Alright, your test will be to find a way to make me laugh by working together." He said, his face suddenly stony as he lit another cancer stick and sat down to watch the show.

"Nani!" Tome screamed.

"You mean our big test to become real genin is to make you laugh?" He demanded. His father had warned him that each instructor came up with an unusual test, but this was plain ridiculous.

"Somehow I don't think it will be that easy." Kida mumbled, looking down at her sitting sensei, trying to figure out the catch.

"Teme, your a natural at playing the fool, you give it a try." Tome was about to tell a joke when he realized she had insulted him.

None but Shino saw the slight twitch of the man's mouth at Kida's comment. It seemed Asuma enjoyed seeing Tome embarrassed and/or enraged.  
Shino wasn't normally a trickster, but let's just say Kida wasn't the only pranking genius in the academy.

He sent a couple of his bugs to loosen the pants of his teammates, and when it seemed the argument was dwindling, ordered them to drop the garments.  
His high-rimmed coat hid his grin and the body of the coat hid his subtle shaking as he held in his laughter.

"TEME!" Oh, maybe it wasn't a good idea to pull Kida into the prank as well.

"I didn't do it! Prankster's honor!" Tome cried desperatly as he tried running with his pants around his ankles as Kida, having already pulled up her pants, chases after.

Asuma had seen the bugs approaching and had to admit, the Aburame was sneaky. Luckily he had a good shinobi mask and was able to hold in the laughter, though it was a close call.

He had to admit, seeing Kida Hatake wearing frilly blue underwear had almost been more than he could take.

After Kida had caught Tome and turned him into many interesting shades of black and blue, the three tried to come up with better pranks to pull.  
Shino and Kida caught eachother's eyes and an unseen agreement passed through the two. Tome would be their obvious target, but Asuma would unwrap the package.

"Tome, you know, I think I have an idea that might just do the trick." Kida said sweetly. Revenge would be sweet.

The three team seven went into the nearby woods to prepare.

_In the Hokage's Office._

"Minato-sensei, Kida told me about the conversation you had with her yesterday." Minato looked up from the papers he was trying to sign to see his student standing in front of his desk, his book in his pouch for once.

"So that's why you were so quiet." Minato said quietly, as though answering some great mystery.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Did he not trust him.

"The same reason I didn't tell anyone." Minato answered, pushing his chair away from his desk and standing in front of the windows.

"I had hoped she would live a normal life, without ever knowing about the fox." Kakashi could understand his mentor's drive for it, and he didn't really blame him.

"You tried to warn me about it, a year after we adopted her. When I began her chakra training." He said slowly.

"I felt bad about keeping you in the dark, I still do. I told myself I would tell you and her when she made chunin." He lied. He had never had any intention to tell.

"Why did you use her?" Kakashi knew he was treading on thin ice now, but he had to know.

"My daughter didn't survive you know. The demon was coming, and there was a newly orphaned child nearby. I didn't have time to think." He sat back down with a tired thump and put his face in his hands.

"You didn't have a choice." He felt bad about grilling his sensei about this. He could imagine the mental turmoil Minato had been going through after such a decision.

"I've never even found out who her parents are." As far as he was concerned, he was Kida's father and Iruka her mother.  
It didn't matter who birthed her, _they_ had raised her!

"I'm sorry for bringing this up. I wouldn't have, but I felt that maybe you didn't trust me enough to tell me." Minato felt more like an ass in that instant than when he had dropped Kida off at the orphanage.

"I almost envy old man Sandaime, he escaped this soul eating job." Minato sighed, staring at the paperwork he was certain he had filed out not even ten minutes ago.

Kakashi couldn't help but laugh.

_Later that day, Barbeque shop._

Asuma grumbled under his breath as he watched his new students eating their meals with smug little grins on their faces.

He couldn't believe he'd been tricked so easily! It was a mockery of his jounin skills! If the others got wind of this he'd never live it down!

He had been all set to ignore any humiliating thing they did when Tome had told him a joke.

"Knock knock." He asked.

"Who's there?" This ought to be good.

"Ha ha." He answered.

"Ha ha who?"

"Got ya sensei." It was only then that he realized his mistake. Those devious little tricksters! He should have failed them on principle!

THE END OF THE CHAPTER!

LC; I know, the joke was lame.

Naruto; You passed lame and went straight to ridiculous.

Sasuke; It was so bad my eyes started to water.

LC; Would you have rather I stuck to Yo mama jokes?

Both; *Pause to think*

Both; *Shudder*

LC; I thought so!


	7. Emos and Rules

LC; Alright, now to get back to Kida HUN!

Naruto; In this chapter we finally find out what LC did to Sasuke.

Sasuke; I'm almost afraid to find out.

LC; Don't worry, I didn't kill him!

Sasuke; You didn't?

LC; No...

Naruto; Did you torture him?

LC;...Define torture.

Sasuke; Anything that causes damage whether physically or mentally.

LC; Nope!

Sasuke; Good.

LC; It was emotionally.

Sasuke; Shit.

Disclaimer; I do not own Naruto! I wish I did though! I own Shika! Will you trade now?

Chapter 7: Silence is Golden.

_Elsewhere, the Uchiha Compound._

"Are you sure you don't mind moving in with us? It might be a little cramped." Kakashi said, looking around the now bare room.  
It had taken most of yesterday just to get all the paperwork signed, but now they almost had all his belongings moved.

"I'm fine with it." Sasuke said curtly. He inwardly winced, he hadn't meant to sound so rude.

"Neh, oh well. The Hatake compound is at least big enough to fit all of us comfortably." Kakashi said, not catching the undertone.

Sasuke sweatdropped before thinking back on the amazing oppurtunity he'd been given. Apparently, he was being taken on as an apprentice to Kakashi Hatake.  
It seemed that his god father, Obito had entrusted his best friend with his sharingan. Now, he was the only one left alive who could teach him how to use it.

He followed his new sensei to the Hatake compound. It was a lot smaller than the Uchiha, but it was fairly larger than most civilian clan homes.  
It was traditional japanese, and the decoration was modest. Unlike at the Uchiha clan, the Hatake clan the clan symbol wasn't painted on every visible surface.

For some reason, Sasuke was rather glad about that. He didn't like the constant reminders of his clan, or of how this wasn't really his home.  
Besides, he had spent many an hour just staring at the symbol his brother had thrown a kunai at. It was probably not healthy.

He saw his academy teacher Iruka Hatake and found himself surprised to see her. He knew that she was a Hatake, but she wasn't entirely sure where she fit.  
He knew Kida was apparently her daughter though, and if Kida was Kakashi's daughter, did that make her his wife?

"Sasuke-kun, everything's ready for you in your new room." She said to him.

"We kept this a secret from Kida so it'll be a big surprise for her!" The woman was almost bursting with excitement.

"Um, great." He said hesitantly.

"Saku-chan, come outside and greet our new guest!" She called through the door.

Sasuke was momentarily confused, before remembering that Kida apparently had a baby brother.

"Kaa-san, don't call me that!" Came the whiny reply. The silver haired, masked boy stepped out of the house and waved to him.

"Hi Sasuke-san!" He greeted him politely. He was momentarily floored by the fact a three year old knew to use honorifics.  
Were all Hatake like this? Maybe it was a genetic thing?

He was led upstairs to a long hallway. One door had Sakumo's name on a little plaque, and he could faintly see another door, this one with Kida, a little down the hall.

"This will be your room." Kakashi said, opening an unmarked door.

"Alright." He said, nodding.

"Mine and Ruka's is at the other end of the hall. We passed Sakumo's room, and Kida's is down that way." He said, pointing in the direction of the marked rooms.

"Now, come down to the living room and we'll talk house rules." Sasuke blinked before realizing that, duh, he should have realized this house hold had rules that it ran by!  
Even if he didn't necessarily have any, he still operated by the ones his parents had set long ago.

He sat down on the couch, opposite of his new sensei apprehensively. Suddenly the joyful, laid back man seemed intimidating.

"Now, I have a daughter your age as your well aware of. These rules mostly pertain to her." Kakashi started gravely.

"Rule one, you are not to be in her room alone with the door closed at any time of the day or night. If this rule is broken, I will lock you in your room and put bars on the windows." Sasuke eyes widened and he dumbly nodded.  
This was his first meeting with an overprotective father before.

"Rule two, you are not to flirt with said lovely little girl. I will cut out your tongue if I suspect you of breaking this rule." Again, a nod.

"Rule three, if you do anything to hurt her I will personally make sure there isn't enough left of you to put in a match box." He should have thought more carefully about this deal.  
But noo, he wanted to be around other people. He wanted to be near his new sensei so he could get more training faster.

"Rule four, do not touch any books with the words ICHA ICHA in the title." This rule was surprisingly less intense than the previous ones.

"Rule five, if you are out late, I need some forewarning." This seemed like a sensible rule at least. Finally.

"Next, no loud noises after nine, that's Sakumo's bedtime." He didn't make loud noises, that would be no problem.

"Rule seven, finally you are on call for baby sitting duty if ever Iruka, Kida, or I is unavailiable. We tried leaving Sakumo alone once and he caught his bed on fire." Here was the perfect moment for a sweat drop.

"Other than that, there's only one more rule." Kakashi said, clapping his hands.

"And that is?" Sasuke prompted.

"If you catch me and Iruka doing very mature things, you do one of two things. Cough very loudly, this is if we're only kissing in the general area and you don't want to push us out of the way. Or turn around and walk away slowly, this is for if we've gone a little farther." Sasuke blushed, wondering if all families were like this.

"Well, now why don't we see about your training?" The somber/silly moment past, regular Kakashi was back out.

_Barbeque shop._

"Well guys, tomorrow we'll start training for real. Our team is meant to be a heavy hitter one, but I don't like specializing, so we'll train in everything from stealth to taijutsu and everything in between!" Asuma told them happily.

"Okay, we're going to be the best!" Tome said determinedly. He may not like Kida, but he respected that she was strong, and Shino was pretty smart too.  
They would be the best, and he would be hokage one day!

"Try not to trip over your own feet Teme." Kida advised him, not looking up from her book. When she got home, she'd start on Mito's diary.  
From what she could gather, Mito was the wife of the Shodai hokage, so it should be interesting.

"Gah, bitch!" Tome screamed at her.

"Both of you quit it!" Asuma ordered. Yeah, this was going to be a long six months until the chunin exams came around.  
Why did he agree to become a jounin sensei? Oh right, because it would look good with Kurenai and she was taking one too.

Kida made it home an hour later, her book still in front of her face. She was about to pull down her mask when she saw a very surprising sight in the living room.  
Sasuke Uchiha was talking to her tou-san on the couch, about training?

"Am I interrupting?" She asked, raising a brow.

"Ah, hello Kida. How was your meeting?" Kakashi asked his daughter.

"Typical. Oh, and I put that pepper spray you gave me to good use today." She told him.

Kakashi was immediatly on the alert. What stupid boy had dared touch his innocent little girl? If she had used the pepper spray than it must have been somewhere inappropriate.

"Who did it?" He demanded. He would castrate any man who touched his daughter.

"Tome." She answered, smirking behind both mask and book as she walked upstairs.

"Oh, by the way Kida, Sasuke will be living with us from now on!" He called after her.

He nodded in satisfaction when he heard the thump that meant Kida had dropped her book. Sasuke blinked, before shaking his head. This family was just too weird.  
Were all families like this or was it just unique to them?

Dinner was a very awkward affair. Normally, the three mask wearing Hatake's could shake off their masks and just dig in.  
With Sasuke here, even if he was now the apprentice of the head, they were resigned to eating while under a special genjutsu their grandfather had designed.

"I hope you understand Sasuke, but a born Hatake isn't supposed to reveal their face to anyone who's not family or a lover." Iruka told him.

"I understand." He answered politely, keeping his eyes closed until the okay was given. Even Sakumo had the genjutsu on, though his father had done it for him.

"But why do you wear masks anyway?" He found himself asking.

"Every clan has it's quirks. The mask is actually a special chakra eating cloth. We are meant to take it off if ever we are in danger of death, to unlock our gekki genkai." Kakashi began.

"The Hatake clan has a special chakra, we call it White Chakra. It's much more potent than most clan's chakra, and we normally have a lot of it." He stopped talking, choosing instead of words to fill his mouth with the curry his wife had made.

"I guess that makes sense, but I thought Kida was adopted as a child?" He inwardly winced as he figured this might be a sore subject.

"It's more of a formality for me, but it's twice as important for a Hatake woman to keep her face hidden." Kida told him.

"Yeah, if someone ever saw nee-chan's face, if it were a boy she'd have to marry him, and if it was a girl she'd work as their servant." Sakumo said, giggling.

"It's the clan's laws. Don't the Uchiha have something like it?" He noticed she spoke of the Uchiha in present tense, but didn't comment.

"Well, in my clan the age you unlock the sharingan at determines who you will be able to marry. My mother unlocked hers at eight, and got to marry the future clan head, my father." He said quietly.  
It didn't hurt as much as he thought it would to talk about them.

"Whoa, how'd she manage to do that? I thought you had to be in a near death expierience or something." Sakumo asked him curiously.

"She was almost kidnapped." He said, not explaining further. Luckily the three year old got the hint and closed his mouth.

"Kida, Saku-chan, there's something your father and I have been meaning to ask you." Iruka started after dessert had come.

"Yes?" Kida said, looking up from her dango.

"How would two feel about another baby in the family?" Kakashi asked, scratching the back of his head nervously.  
At first, they had thought that they'd be unable to have children. However, Ruka-chan had gotten a special surgery that made her fertile again.

"I get to be a big brother!" Sakumo said happily.

"I'm fine with it, so long as it's a girl this time." She added.

Sasuke shuddered, what had he gotten himself into? The idea of an apprenticeship with the famous Kakashi Hatake had seemed so ideal.  
Living with his family, finding out he was more sex-driven than anyone he knew, and dealing with their weird customs, was a little over what he'd bargained for. At the same time though, he thought he could get used to it.

Kida opened her new book when she got to her room and remembered she hadn't ripped her tou-san a new one yet about the books he read.  
She'd do it in the morning, for now she had a new book and a comfy place on her bed.

In the safety and security seals of her bedroom, she let down her mask and stretched as she removed her more cumbersome clothing.  
Soon she was only in her loose, black training clothes. No tiny knife to poke her chest when she walked, no pepper spray that felt uncomfortable to sit on, and no heat insulating jacket.

Thankfully and finally, no very hot mask. She really did wish she didn't have to wear it all the time. With the security seals sewn on to it, no one with a gekki genkai could look through it. The same seals were enscribed on the walls of their house.  
She found it silly going to such measures so people wouldn't see a couple inches of skin, but she was used to it.

_Dear diary, today I am fifteen years old and today I marry my true love, Hashirama._

Kida stopped after the first line to make sure she'd read right, then again to make sure the letters weren't smudged or something.  
This was really the diary of the Shodai's wife? This would be worth a fortune!

_The hidden village he is creating, Konohagakure, will be a beautiful place someday. I can't wait to see it bustling with people and to see this blood shed and fued end.  
Once upon a time the Uzumaki were a part of the Senju clan, and after today, they will be again._

_As an act of peace, Hashi-kun is giving away most of the tailed beasts. I worry about it sometimes, but he assures me it will be fine.  
Especially since we kept the strongest one, the Kyubi no Kitsune._

_The thing is, what will happen after Hashi-kun passes and his mokuton jutsu dies? The demons will break free and go back to destroying things.  
I've thought of a way to prevent it, I just hope he'll agree. It's risky, but as an Uzumaki, I am a seal master and I am fully capable of doing this._

_I have to go now, it's time to fit into my wedding kimono._

Naru stopped reading now, her brow furrowed. Without realizing it, her hand reached up and began to stroke the marks on her cheeks.  
She glanced towards the closet, where she knew that mysterious scroll was sitting. She knew her father, her biological one, was Yondaime. But all she had of her mother was a first name, Kushina.

Were perhaps the secrets in that scroll? It was addressed to Kida Uzumaki, and she knew no one knew who her parents were, save the last living one.  
Maybe, if she could just find a way to open it, she could answer some questions.

She leaned against the dashboard of her bed, just staring at the closet door as though willing it to open and the scroll to fly to her hands.  
Every orphan wanted to know about their parents. Every orphan wanted to answer the questions of who they were, and why they were alone.

Kida lost the fight to remain inactive and walked slowly to the closet, pushing it open. Inside, she found the shoe box, and inside it the scroll.  
She took it to her bed and examinned it as closely as humanely possible.

She was looking at the scroll, glaring at it actually, when she recalled what Mito had written. She had called herself, and all Uzumaki, seal masters.  
Could it be that what kept her from opening it was a seal? How did she break this seal then?

That is when she got the idea of blood seals. She knew summoning scrolls required blood, and her tou-san was even considering letting her sign for her own puppy squad.  
Could this scroll be triggered by her blood?

It wasn't like she had a better idea, so she used a kunai to cut her finger and wiped it over her own name.  
There was a short burst of light before the scroll unrolled to reveal tons of strange squiggles and writing that she could barely understand at first glance.

Kida subtly looked at the clock and sighed. This was going to be a long night. She went to the start of the scroll and got to reading.

_To a young Kida Uzumaki, orphan of Konohagakure, to you I present this scroll, with all information regarding your mother's clan inside.  
The first thing that you must be told is your mother's name, Kushina Uzumaki. She was a proud kunoichi of Uzugakure before it's destruction._

_The first thing you must know about is the clan's gekki genkai. An Uzumaki's soul takes the form of an animal, and can interact with the physical world.  
This animal, althugh a piece of you, will be different. It will be your life long companion. The secret to unlocking this power, is meditation._

Kida finished the bare basics of the scroll by Five in the morning, her eyes too heavy from lack of sleep to continue reading.  
She had three hours until her team meeting. She set her alarm, laid down, and closed her eyes.

The alarm went off all too soon, an hour before her meeting time. Kida nearly cried in frustration before getting her clothes and heading for the shower.  
She stepped into the bathroom in her pjs, a towel over her face, before she realized that the water was already running.

She stopped walking and looked to the silouhette behind the curtain. She furrowed her brow, before remembering Sasuke was living with them now.  
He obviously did not realize that this door had problems shutting all the way. You had to put the Do Not Disturb sign up to keep people from walking in on you. Without saying a word, she turned and snuck back off.

Most fangirls would have killed to have been in her position not five seconds earlier but all she was feeling at the moment was annoyance that she had to wait for a shower.  
She sighed before deciding to wait on the shower and eating first. It's not like the Uchiha would be in their forever.

Forty minutes later she was tapping her foot outside the bathroom. She'd eaten the breakfast kaa-san had set out, and now was still waiting for king emo to get out.  
Finally deciding if she wanted a shower, she'd have to take drastic measures, she chose a different tactic.

"Uchiha, you've been in there for over forty minutes. Either get out and let a real girl have a turn or I will post pictures of your naked ass all over the village." She said calmly, knowing he could hear her.

That turned out to be all that was needed because he practically jumped out of the shower, towel around his waist, and ran to his bedroom.  
Kida shook her head before going in, putting up the sign, and taking a quick ten minute shower. She'd have to make this quick, damn picky Uchiha boy.

She took the shinobi high way and made it to the training ground with just three minutes to spare, her two teammates already present.

"What took you so long?" Tome asked. She usually showed up ten minutes early.

"King emo has apparently moved in and he was in the shower for forty minutes this morning." She said. Shino figured she must have just hopped out as her hair was still wet.

"Well, since everyone's here, let's get started!" They all turned around to see their sensei standing at the edge of the clearing and walking to them.

"You have D-ranks to do and no time to waste, so let's get moving!" Kida suddenly wished she had remembered to bring her newest book.

END OF THE CHAPTER SO NOW YOU MUST WAIT MANY DAYS FOR AN UPDATE HA!

LC; Okay, now we got what we needed in here!

Sasuke; We finally found out where Sasuke was in all this!

Naruto; Darn, I was kind of hoping you just erased him from the story.

LC; I was going to do that, really, but it's not the same without him.

Sasuke; Liar, you planned this all along. You wanted Kakashi to give him those rules!

LC; I regret nothing! *Flees angry fans*


	8. Diaries and Spirits

LC; Welcome back to the Hatake Family!

Naruto; Whatever, I have given up hope of having a male role without yaoi.

LC; About time too.

Sasuke; Here I thought you'd complain about it until LC finally killed you off.

LC;...*Hides blue prints of one-shot behind back* Ahem, uh, yeah.

Naruto; LC, what's behind your back?

Sasuke; She was making a one shot where you die.

Naruto Fans; *Growl*

LC; I regret nothing! *Runs for life*

Disclaimer; I do not own them! Still! I do own Sakumo though. HA!

Chapter 8: Duct tape is silver.

"I never liked cats." Kida could certainly attest to this fact, seeing as how she knew the reasoning behind it. Tome had been scratched as a child and since then hated the furry felines with a passion.

Still, she thought it was rather funny how this particular cat seemed to take an instant hatred to the hokage's son.

Which explained why only she could carry the feline without incident. They were heading back to the tower to return it to it's owner.  
Just because the cat wasn't trying to claw _her _eyes out didn't mean she thought it deserved a he or she pronoun. To her, it was an it!

"Your afraid of them." She responded automatically, though by now her mind was in another part of the village entirely.

"I AM NOT AFRAID OF NOTHING!" Tome yelled loudly, drawing attention from the nearby villagers.

"Double negative, your afraid of cats." Kida pointed out.

Shino watched the interaction and began the rather long process of trying to figure out why Kida could act so cold to the blonde.  
They had never been on the best of terms but for the most part they seemed to at least understand eachother. So why was it on some days she could act positively frigid with the younger boy?

Kida personally just wished this day was over. She just wanted to go home and read more from her family scroll and learn more about everything!  
She would look into some seals later, they had definitely caught her interest.

Asuma distributed the money as he watched his genin glare at the feline. Well, Tome glared, Shino just seemed to buzz angrily, and Kida was looking out the window.  
He was almost positive he had the weirdest genin team.

"Well congrats on your tenth D-rank. Ten in one day must be a new record." Minato laughed. In all honesty, he could tell it wasn't because they liked the jobs. He was fairly certain the only motivation they had was completing the necessary D-ranks to get a C-rank.

"Only ten more to go and we can get away from D-ranks for a while." His son just confirmed his suspicions.

"Alright team, meet again tomorrow at training ground seven!" Asuma instructed them. Taking that as the dismissal, they wandered off to do what they wanted to.

"Hey Kida, you said Sasuke's at your place right?" Tome questioned. Kida just nodded. She had pulled out her book right after the dismissal and was getting reaquainted with Naruto and his great adventures.

Tome had a running gag that one day Kida would have to run into a pole or something with a book in her face all the time.  
As of yet though, he'd never seen it happen. Whenever he could he would tail her, hoping to finally see it happen.

They reached the Hatake home within a few minutes by taking the shinobi highway. Upon entering they discovered a note left by Iruka saying she and Sakumo had gone shopping and Kakashi was responsible for taking them all out tonight.

"Sasuke! You here?" Tome called loudly, causing Kida to flinch at the unwarranted noise.

Sasuke came downstairs and he and Tome wandered off for some training. Kida went to her room and locked the door.  
It was only afterwards that she remembered she had to meet Neji in thirty minutes. Groaning to herself she resigned herself to her fate and left, taking Mito's diary with her this time.

She reached the usual place with five minutes to spare and spent them reading, waiting for her older buddy to appear.  
It was a sort of game for them. Neji would sneak up, trying to steal her book. Sometimes he succeded, sometimes he didn't. It was really a matter of what she was reading.

Neji came up as stealthily as he could, but Kida didn't even twitch. He frowned at that. Something was different about her today.

_Dear Diary, the pain of becoming a jinchuriki was almost unbearable. If not for the Uzumaki longevity I would not have survived. An adult usually doesn't survive coming into contact with such an overload of chakra._

_Hashi-kun stayed by my side as I wept in pain in that lonely cave. He shouldn't have. He had just come back from the fight against Madara, and was so badly wounded!  
I fear he doesn't have long to live. I pray I can get him back to the village in time. I pray the man I love will not die._

_I must make ready for the journey now! His wounds won't stop bleeding, at this rate-!_

Kida was forced to stop reading as the book she had previously held vanished. For a split second she was confused, until she noticed Neji standing behind her, holding her book above her head.

"What's wrong?" He asked her, and for another moment, she was stunned.

"It's usually not so easy to sneak up on you." He explained upon seeing her confused eyes.

"Ah." She grunted, not giving the reason for her unease. She was just a little run down was all. And tired.

"You have a new book? Did you stay up last night reading it?" He questioned her. That would explain the slightly dull look in her eyes, certainly.  
But not the uncertainty, though she tried to hide it, that was so plain on her usual confident face.

"Not _all _night." She mumbled uncomfortably. He was one of her closest friends, and he had always been able to read her pretty well. The only good point to that was he knew when she didn't want to talk.

"Ready to fight?" He asked her, throwing her book gently to the side. The Hatake Heiress didn't bother to answer, just moving to stand facing him.

They took their stances, eyeing the other with a critical eye, watching for any weakness though knowing they wouldn't find one.  
Countless spars had turned them into a well oiled machine.

Kida was certain that he knew her moves better than she herself did, and she knew his. It was all a matter of perspective, and she knew just which one would work for him.

"You wouldn't believe what happened yesterday." They always talked during their fights, no matter how extreme they got.

"Apparently my father took Sasuke as an apprentice." Neji charged, byakugan blazing and his hands enveloped in chakra.  
Kida dodged the first dozen strikes before going for the attack and hooking her ankle around his and pitching them forwards.

"Not only that, but they just announced my mother is pregnant again." She continued, giving him the best hay maker she could in such short quarters.  
Neji didn't say anything yet, just grunted in response as he threw her off and hopped back to his feet.

"Personally I hope it's a girl this time." He charged, using all his speed to startle her and deliver a decisive hit to the solar plexis.  
This sent her flying but she managed to catch herself on a tree branch and use the momentum to send her flying back at him. He barely escaped her flying kick that time.

"It seems your family is still growing." Neji commented, throwing back his long hair and sending more chakra to his eyes.

"I guess you could say that. Oh, and I learned a new jutsu recently." This caught his attention. So soon after graduating too. What kind of jutsu?

"I'll show it to you, kage bunshin jutsu!" He watched as her sequence ended with a cross monkey sign and half a dozen different Hatake females appeared.  
He was more than a little stunned to realize he couldn't figure out which was the original. The chakra was distributed evenly.

"So we're moving to taijutsu then?" It was a rhetorical question, and she knew that.

Eventually their spar ended, this particular time with Neji being the victor, though by a slim margin.

"I won't be able to come tomorrow, I'm going on a C-ranked mission." Neji told her before they parted ways.  
They didn't have big philisophical discussions or little meaningless conversations. Neji and Kida didn't spare any words, they got to the point. The parting may have seemed harsh to some, but to Kida it was just Neji's way and she didn't mind.

"Be seeing you." She nodded in his direction before retrieving her book and going on her way.

Kida got home at six, sore from her training session with Neji. She at first wanted only to go to the bathroom for a long hot shower but remembered the family's plan of going out to eat.  
She sighed in resignation and got ready to leave after her father returned from the memorial stone.

They went to Ramen Ichiraku, which happened to be the family's favorite restaurant. Sasuke joined them, being an honorary family member.  
Teuchi and Ayame were certainly happy to see them. The entire Hatake family coming usually meant they would be able to pay all their bills again.

Under the genjutsu, none could see the faces of the family.

After returning home, Kida went straight to her room, and from there to the scroll lying hidden under her bed.  
Not the most original hiding spot, but out of character enough for her that no one would think to look there.

_Meditation is the first step to unlocking this clan's power. Simply by walking the hallowed halls of the mind, can we find the spirit within us that will be by our side forever.  
The first visit to this spirit will not result in releasing it. That can only be done when the spirit deems the Uzumaki ready for their power._

_You must prove yourself worthy before your own eyes to gain the companionship of the spirit within you. And only you know if your worthy._

It seemed rather cryptic but the rest was still in that jumbled mess that didn't even resemble words. Kida guessed that meant she had to do that step before reading further.  
Shrugging to herself, she took the lotus position and closed her eyes.

It took several minutes before her mind slowed to a crawl and she went into the state she recognized as true meditation.  
Normally, she didn't open her eyes at this point. If she did, she'd been warned of being within her subconcious, something very dangerous. If one got lost in one's own mind, it could be difficult to get them out again.

This time though, despite the fear she opened her eyes. She saw a sewer, with amny different passageways.  
Down one hall, was a red wall, pulsing with an unseen evil. She knew instinctively that must be where the fox was locked. Down a different hall she could see a plaque that read memories.

But down the third hall, the one on the far right, she saw a locked door. The walls of this hall were painted like that of a forest, so real she could almost touch it.  
She didn't hesitate, she took the third passage.

At the door she tried to turn the knob, but it held firm. Which made sense given the chains locking it in place.

What did the chains mean? Did it mean she wasn't ready to meet the spirit inside of her? Or maybe she had to think of a way to unlock the door?  
Kida didn't know, and honestly she wasn't sure she'd ever figure it out.

So she did what any person naturally does when faced with a locked door. Kida Hatake, heiress to the clan, knocked.

"Come in." She gasped in surprise when the chains melted and the door swung open as though with a mind of it's own.

"Hello?" She could have slapped herself for how weak she sounded. She was suppossed to be_ impressing _the spirit! Not making it think she was so easily frightened!

"Hello Kida, you've grown." The lights flashed on and she saw a magnificent bird perched in a tree, looking down at her.  
And she knew this bird.

Back in the orphanage, she had an imaginary friend. Her name was Kilala and she was her best friend. After being adopted though, she had stopped seeing Kilala.  
She hadn't questioned it, though she had missed her companion.

"Ah, so you do remember me!" The bird squawked happily.

"You were so small and so alone, I couldn't resist showing myself to you whenever you wanted to play." The bird reminsced.

"So my friend wasn't as imaginary as the matron thought." Kida mumbled.

"Your turning into a very beautiful young woman Kida, I'm so proud. I was afraid you'd take it badly when I stopped showing up but you made friends rather quickly! I'm so happy!" The bird didn't really act like her for being a part of her mind.  
It sounded a lot more enthusiastic and happy all the time. Kida momentarily wondered if this is what her personality would have been had she not been adopted.

"Oh you can play behind that stoic mask you like but what I know is that your really a very energetic person!" The bird, Kilala, chirped.

"Kilala, the scroll said you would judge my worthiness, what did it mean?" Kida asked, sitting down and looking to the bird in the tree.  
If she recalled correctly, the species Kilala was a red tailed hawk, a very clever bird.

"Ah, basically it means do I deem you fit to inherit the Uzumaki bloodline." She explained, not really getting her point through.

"Let's start from the beginning, the shape the spirit takes is most like your personality in animal persona." Thus the long story began.

"A red tailed hawk is a very watchful bird, catching every detail. We are very intelligent and can be quite tricky at times." Ah, that did sound a bit like her.

"When a spirit judges their 'other', we basically see if that person can face who they truly are, deep inside." Kilala explained.

"Now then, let's get started." Everything went black.

When Kida opened her eyes, she was at the orphanage. Cautiously, she went around to the front door, only to be sucked through the doorway.  
Inside she found the infant room, and there, lying on a small cot in the corner, was her.

She was crying, begging for attention, but the many nursemaids were too busy with all the other babies.  
Finally one of the nurses finished with the little girl they were feeding, Ami she guessed, and picked her up.

"Poor thing, not even a name to tack onto a tag." She cooed. The as-of-yet-unnamed baby Kida stopped crying so hard and happily took the bottle being offered.

"Well, let's try some names shall we?" The nurse suggested.

"What about Akane? Your hair is red." She murmured, smiling at the little tuff of red on the baby's head.

"No, that's not quite it." She took on a thoughtful expression.

"I know. Your name will be Kida." The currently twelve year old Kida watched this. She hadn't even been named by her parents? It hurt more than she thought it would.

The scene changed to a year later, when she had learned how to walk. Kida watched as her younger self wandered around the backyard, wanting to play.  
She could barely see herself in that small child at all. This child was running everywhere, and was so happy all the time.

She tried to play at the sandbox, but a small boy pushed her out. Instead of crying, she had gone over to play catch, but a bigger girl turned her away.  
She had gone to the tree, where three girls were playing with dolls. Ami, one of the girls, ended up hitting her with one.

As she watched her younger self go from group to group, trying in vain to find a friend, she couldn't help but wonder if this is how she would have grown up.  
If Kakashi-tousan and Iruka-kaasan had never adopted her, would she have spent her life flitting from group to group, trying to find some friends?

The scene went dark again, and she was back in front of Kilala.

"So, what did you think?" The bird chirped.

"I think I'm even more grateful to Tou-san and Kaa-san now." She answered.

Kilala made a strange clucking sound in the back of her beak, something about it reminded Kida of laughter.

"Well that was only your first trial, but your doing well so far! I'll see you again tomorrow!" Kida opened her eyes again to find herself at the fork in her mind.  
She could take a stroll down memory lane, or she could go meet her prisoner, or finally she could turn around and get some real sleep. So many options.

Kida sighed before taking the road to the devil itself. It wasn't like she'd be able to sleep anyway, she may as well do something constructive.

It came as a total surprise when she reached the large cage. No, large wasn't a good enough word. Enormous would be better, or maybe giant.  
Either way, it was huge, a cage, and had a tiny slip of paper holding the thing inside back. Needless to say it didn't inpsire her with confidence.

**"So my jailor sees fit to visit me." **It was big alright, same as ever. Though it looked even angrier now than the last time she had visited it.

**"Your life is in no danger, so what are you here for?" **It growled at her.

"I was bored." She deadpanned. Now that she wasn't in danger and could concentrate, she found it looked a lot less threatening than first percieved.  
For one thing, no matter how powerful the legend says it is, it's hard to be afraid of something locked behind a few metal bars.

"If this is my mind can I change it?" She wondered aloud.

The Kyubi watched it's host from beyond the gate. She reminded him of Kushina, his last vessal. The red hair, inner personality, and the sentient spirit, led him to believe this was Kushina's kit or relative of some sort.

Kida eventually left the Kyubi to it's thoughts and returned to the real world. When she opened her eyes, she was amazed to find how little time passed.  
It felt like she'd been in there for hours, but only a minute had passed in the real world.

"Something to think about." The whisker faced maiden pondered before lying down. She'd think about it alright, but she'd do it in the morning.

Kida woke before her alarm went off, a habit she had subconciously forced upon herself. She turned off the timer and dressed herself quickly.  
From here she could already here the water from the shower running, Sasuke was in it no doubt.

After eating breakfast and showering, she met her teammates at their training ground. There, they began the long, grueling journey to getting a C-rank mission.  
Kida had only been out of the village once on a field trip, she hoped they'd get a C-rank soon. Those were basically paid vacations to other countries!

END OF THIS CHAPTER AND I AM THE LINE THAT TELLS YOU THE CHAPTER IS OVER!

LC; Okay, now to work on another fic of mine in another category.

Naruto; You should take a break.

Sasuke; Yeah, your brain is getting overheated.

LC; I should take a break. But what about my fans?

Naruto; If they want the best quality chaps you can make, they'll just have to wait.

Sasuke; I'm sure they'll understand.

Naruto;...LC?

LC; *Snores*


	9. Flowers and Rumors

LC; Guess it's time for more about Kida.

Naruto; Great, so what's this chapter all about?

LC; Meh, just the usual. Crack, cool masked girls, crack, awesome books, discoveries, crack.

Sasuke; Why do you always put in so much crack? Aren't your stories insane enough?

LC; Everything is better when you add crack! Crack makes everything better!

Naruto; Your a drug-a-holic.

LC; You say it like it's a bad thing.

Sasuke; Don't bother trying to talk sense to her Naruto. She has a mind that doesn't work in Earth's tiny gravity. She's an alien from another planet so she works at a different speed than humans.

LC; WHO TOLD YOU!...I mean...No I am not an alien sent to steal humans as slave labor for our amusement.

Naruto; O.o Why am I not surprised?

Disclaimer; I do not own Naruto. How can I? Apparently Kishi won't sell to someone from another galaxy...Cheapskate.

Chapter 9; Two people I trust.

_Twitch._

What was he playing at? Was he purposefully seeking death today or was he just plain extra stupid today...No, not even Tome could accomplish that.

_Twitch. Twitch twitch._

So in the name of Inari and Kami themselves why on this godforsaken Earth was Tome holding out a large bouqet of roses to her?

_Twitch twitch._

Maybe the flowers were poisoned and this was an assassination attempt...No, too smart for the stupid blonde boy.

"Tome, as much as I'm glad you've finally accepted the alure of a mask but so help me if those roses aren't removed from my line of sight you will lose that hand." She stated coldly, looking up at the boy with a grim face.

"Just take the stupid flowers." The boy tried to keep the bite out of his voice, and failed miserably.

"My dad just told me that the stupid civilian council arranged a betrothal between us and he is making me give you these stupid flowers now." Ah, so now she had a definite target. Time to put those assassination lessons from dear old dad to good use.

"Tome, would you happen to know the homes of these council members?" She asked.

"No, now will you take this stupid bouqet thing already? People are staring." It was his fault for doing something like this in the middle of a crowded street.  
He should have waited until they were alone. Bastard.

"Uuummm...No. I'm going to go to the shinobi library and look up those council members' homes, then I'll go to the shinobi stores and look up some slow acting and non-tracable poisons." Kida answered cooly.

Sadly, genin do not have clearance to information such as council members' homes and the nontracable poison was too expensive with her meager D-rank pay.  
So now she was stuck with a rose holding Tome and a betrothal she wanted no part of. Why on Earth did they think they'd make a good couple? Wait a minute, in cases like these aren't the girls alowed to protest to Hokage.

Oh but she really didn't want to do that. For one, that would be awkward, saying she deplored his son and held no wish to marry him. Two, he was technically her father and therefore this would qualify as incest and she honestly didn't want to be forced to think about that by seeing the boy's father. So wrong on so many levels.

"There's only one thing for it, I have to convince Tousan to let me transfer to Suna." She sighed sadly.

Meanwhile, deep in the recesses of Hokage tower, Minato was trying to get the disturbing images out of his mind through the use of sake.  
His biological daughter and his son being put into a betrothal was bad in and of itself. But he was expected to MARRY them! Where did the council get off doing something like this!

"Why is my life so messed up?" He asked himself angrily. On the bright side, there was no way both would agree to it and if they both came saying they didn't want it, he could rip up the stupid contract.  
Then this would be nothing more than a bad dream.

Oh why was his life so screwed over!

Kida made it home again around three, since Neji was gone on a mission, lucky bastard. Safe inside the walls of her home, she would normally rip off her mask to get a little air.  
However the presence of Sasuke Uchiha sitting in her living room with Tome talking about 'insane/stupid girls' prevented her from this action.

"First off, Tome what the hell are you doing in my house? Second, why are you in my house degrading females in general when you know this one will not hesitate to kick your ass and you _know_ no one will find the body." She growled. She was irritated, tired, and only wanted to go upstairs and meditate but damnit it all she had frustration she needed to pound out.

Tome would make a great punching bag for today since Neji wasn't around.

"Sasuke invited me over and girls are stupid." Tome answered. Clearly he did not see the thunder and lightning going off behind her head.  
Or the death glare that was doing it's best to incinirate him on the spot.

"Maybe for that I _will_ marry you, just so I can torment you everyday for the rest of your miserable life." She threatened him.

"You wouldn't!" Tome gasped.

"Your right. I wouldn't. I can torment you just fine without having to resort to bestiality." She agreed.

Sasuke watched the exchange and had the strangest feeling of deja vu. It sounded almost like an argument amongst siblings from his point of view.

"Sasuke, please alert me beforehand before bringing home strays. I would have stopped and picked up some kibble." Kida told him before heading upstairs. Meanwhile, Tome was looking up Bestiality in the dictionary.

"You bitch I am not an animal!" Ah, looks like he found it.

Kida chuckled to herself, congratulating her sharp wits for a job well done. Sitting on her bed, she closed her eyes and cleared her mind.  
She had another test to ace after all.

"Ah, welcome back Kida-chan!" Well that was fast. Kida opened her eyes to find herself again at the crossroads and turned to see Kilala waiting outside her hall, waiting for her.

"Kida-chan, today we test the strength of your will." The hawk informed her, leading her into her chamber. Inside of this chamber, rather than the forest of yesterday, was a single wooden pole, with a katana lodged inside.

"All you have to do is pull out this sword, without ever letting go." Kilala instructed.

"Why do I get the feeling it's harder than it looks?" Kida deadpanned, walking over and inspecting the sword.

"Some blade, doesn't look like it could cut tissue paper." She paused before adding. "Wet."

"The blade has been used for countless generations of Uzumaki for this test. What did you expect? A million ryo blade?" Kilala cackled.

"Guess you have a point there." She acknowledged.

"I just have to pull it out?" She asked for confirmation. Kilala obliged.

"It's not going to be that easy is it?" She asked again.

"Probably not, no." Kilala answered.

"Afraid of that." Kida sighed. Steeling her courage, she lifted both hands and placed them on the hilt. As a result, all hell broke loose and not even Inari and Kami could save her.

No matter how hard she gripped the handle, her hands kept slipping and sliding, threatening to slip right off.  
If she wasn't careful, she'd end up losing her grip and failing this test. No way was that happening! She hadn't flunked a test in her whole life!

"D-Damn!" Kida cursed, redoubling her grip.

"You should just let go, your resolve isn't strong enough." Well, Kida, we are definitely not in Konoha anymore.

Just beside her, stood herself. Only this her was different! Her hair was hung in long pig tails and blonde! She wore an awful orange jumpsuit that practically burned her eyes!  
A large grin was strung across this double's face, unlike any she could ever remember smiling. In fact, there was absolutely no way that this could be her! The only thing they had in common were blue eyes and whisker marks!

"I am you! Just you know, from another plain of reality!" Kida could be considered smart, even genius in some incidents.  
However she just could not wrap her mind around this.

"I am the you who's father died in the Kyubi attack, sealing it away. I'm the you who grew up without being adopted, because in my world, everyone knew I was a jinchuriki and I was hated and ignored. And because of that, I grew stronger than you could hope to be!" No, she was lying!

"I'm the you who grew up behind a different sort of mask! I'm the you who failed nearly every test every put up against me! I'm the you who will never give up, doesn't know the meaning of the word surrender!" Her voice was getting louder and no amount of Tome-ignoring practice could help her.

"I'm the you who will become Hokage! I'm the you that won't let anything get in my way! I'm the you who never knew her parents! I'm the you that has beaten the odds more times than I can count! I'm the you who is just plain better!" She didn't want to hear this anymore!

"Shut up!" Kida yelled.

"My name is Naru Uzumaki and nothing gets in my way! I'm the you who will never fall because my resolve is unshakable and compared to me, your just another snivelling coward to put down once and for all!" She's lying, just keep thinking that, and she'll go away!

But now doubts had been risen to the forefront of her mind and no amount of mental strength could stop these thoughts running through her mind.

She wasn't the smartest, she just memorized things and spat them out again at appropriate times! She wasn't the strongest, what she had she gained through hours and hours of work, not genius or skill! She wasn't the bravest. She wasn't the best. She couldn't be! But why? She tried hard, so why not?

Because she lacked resolve? Because she wasn't able to stand up and defend what she believed in without a shadow of a doubt? Her hand slipped a little more. Was it because she hadn't had as hard a life? Because she had friends and a family so she didn't need to be as strong? Only her finger tips clung to the handle. But that couldn't be it.

"Those who break the rules are trash." She started faithfully.

"But those who abandon their comrades, are worst than trash." The duplicate tilted her head, that confident grin still on her face. Confidence and Cocky were two different things though.

"Maybe I'm not as strong as you, but that doesn't matter. I can grow stronger. My dad taught me that! Kakashi-tousan!" Her voice shook at the beginning, but now grew strength.

"You say my resolve is lacking? Well tough toenails because sometimes people have to know when to stop to fight another day! I know that! But that doesn't mean I back down from fights!" Her hands shook, but the grip was firm.

"Just because you have a dream to be Hokage doesn't mean it has to be my dream! I'll be a great ninja in my own right! Just like my parents, the people who raised me! And I won't let anything stop me!" She stopped the shaking in her hands and gave a tug, pulling the sword out an inch.

"My life hasn't been all sugar and rainbows either you know! My father abandoned me, I have to marry his kamiforsaken son, I have the second biggest teme living in my house! They aren't much, but to me, those troubles are all consuming!" The duplicate was frowning now. No, _glaring_ at her!

"Maybe my will wasn't forged in the heat of hatred like yours, but it's just as strong if not stronger!" Another tug, the sword was half out of the pole.

'She has a strong will, that refuses to break, though it weaves and bends like that of a willow.' Kilala noticed.

With a final tug the sword was pulled free and the scene shifted again to the forest. Suddenly the duplicate was gone and she felt more tired and exhausted than she ever had in her life. If this is what chakra exhaustion felt like she'd be sure to never use too much in a fight.

"I'll see you outside, Kida-chan." Kilala said, thrusting the exhausted Uzumaki out of her mind and out like a light in the real world.

When Kida woke up, it was to a bunch of feathers tickling her nose. Her eyes shot open and sure enough, Kilala was outside, in the wing.  
At first, the simple fact that this had been the desired result all along escaped her. All she could do was freak out and try to figure out how it was possible.

As a rule, chakra did not randomly manifest into a living incarnation. Unless it was a clone, and then only with the proper handsigns.  
Therefore, what she was looking at nesting on her chest should very well be impossible. But then again, a lot of bloodlines were like that. This was just one of the stranger ones.

"Kilala?" Kida could almost hit herself for how clueless that sounded. Of course it was Kilala! What other red tailed hawks did she know!

"Mornin' Kida-chan." Kilala yawned, stretching out her wings.

"Oooh, so this is your room! It looks rather boring." The bird deadpanned.

"You should paint it orange." This is going to be a major headache, she just knows it.

"Shit, I never thought of a way to explain you to Tousan, Kaasan, Kumo-chan, or Uchiha-teme." Kida cursed. Oh what a cluster fuck! She'd never been in such a messed up situation before in her life!  
After this, enemy nin would be easy to handle!

"Just tell them the truth. Your actually the long lost daughter of Minato-baka, your an Uzumaki, and I am your spirit animal!" The simple bird suggested. For a supposedly clever bird, it sure did sound simplistic.

"That is a horrible idea!" Kida squawked. She had to think carefully about this. With a quick glance at the clock she found she had a good two hours before anyone else in the house woke up. So she should be able to come up with a half way decent cover story.

'Well, I could tell the truth but then tousan might 'accidently' kill the hokage.' She began listing options in rapid fire.

'I could say she flew in through my window in the middle of the night.' That might actually work.

"Hey, will anyone else understand you talking?" She asked her new companion.

"Nope." The hawk chirped happily, bouncing around the room, exploring.

"...Are you even good in a fight? No offense but your small stature doesn't inspire me with much confidence." Kida sweatdropped.

"Hmm? Oh, no I'm mostly for surveilence of an enemy, tracking, interrogation, that sort of stuff. No jutsu for me since technically I don't have chakra. I'm just your 'true self' personified." The bird answered her.

"Okay then here's our story. You flew in through my window and won't leave so I'm keeping you as a pet." Ignoring the bird's protests, Kida laied back down onto her bed before remembering about the scroll.  
Now that she had unlocked her spirit, could she read more of it?

'Hmm, read more now and potentially exhaust self further or sleep?' All in all it wasn't that tough a question. She'd read the scroll!

Fishing it out from under the bed she curled up with it and began to read the newest passage.

_By now you have unlocked your true self and are on the way to self realization. Congratulations Kida. Your next step however will require more than a strong will, but an ability to thrive under the heat of battle. For this next step, you must do at least one of the following._

_1; Take a life._

_2; Save a friend's life._

_3; Fall in love._

_By doing one of these things your will shall be born in fire and bathed in blood, whether your own or an enemy's. Doing this opens the inner 'Domain'._

This was not helpfull in the slightest and as expected wore out what little energy she had left. Just reading something like that made her feel tired! What's worse is that now she only had an hour and a half to sleep!

"Take a life, save a friend, or fall in love. I'm not sure which of these appeals to me the least." She growled balefully. Did life go out of it's way to annoy her or was it just her?

'Either get up now and take a shower before Sasuke takes all the hot water, or sleep.' Sadly, again she chose the more tiresome of the two and gathered some clean clothes.  
Sometimes she hated her endless urge to never sit still. It got tiring after a while.

'One of these days I'm going to choose sleep just for the heck of it.' She promised herself.

She made herself a light breakfast and left a note for her family stating she had left early that morning. This way she could put off explaining Kilala for a while later.  
The hawk soared above her now, looking out into the real world it had previously only seen in peeks from behind Kida's eyes.

'We could get a C-ranked today, I wonder how Tome will react when he finds out what a C-rank is.' She pondered tiredly.  
At least her mask prevented anyone from seeing her mouth open in a yawn, that might have been needlessly embarrassing. She still had to salvage her reputation from the beating it had taken yesterday in what she would forever refer to as the 'Teme incident'. She hoped no one their age had seen the flowers.

At their training ground, Kida went through some normal excercises in order to loosen up. Something about this day seemed to just scream 'Long'.

"Good morning Kida-san." Ah, Aburame has arrived.

"If you would not mind, I would like confirmation on a rumor that has been circling the village recently." Oh no, he hadn't heard!

"The rumor you ask? It is that Tome-san proposed to you in the middle of the village with a large bouqet of flowers and you agreed." Just hearing it was almost enough to have her throwing kunai!

"That rumor is fucking dead wrong! Tome and I were betrothed because of the idiotic-soon-to-be-deceased civilian council! I will never marry that lame poor excuse for a shinobi!" Kida raged and ranted, her pent up frustration finally coming to a boil.

"I swear as soon as I figure out where the council members live I'll blackmail tousan into teaching me the chidori and then we're going to town!" By this point Shino was mildly disturbed by the show of emotion the girl was putting on.  
So much for the ice queen of Konoha.

END OF THE CHAPTER SO NOW YOU MAY LEAVE AND RETURN TO YOUR PATHETIC EXISTENSE!

LC; Well, on the bright side I got Kida to show real emotions!

Naruto; Now I can almost believe she's really me.

Sasuke; Yeah, before it was like you just took Naruto out completely.

LC; Hey, the people who raise you mold your personality the most. Because she was raised by kakashi, she acted like him!

Naruto;...Oh...that kinda makes sense...I guess.

Sasuke; Don't think on it too much Dobe, you'll break your brain again.


	10. masks and missions

LC; Alrightie! More Kida HUN!

Naruto; Surprisingly not a lot of people realize what the HUN means.

Sasuke; People, Naruto knows what it means. What does that say for your IQ?

LC; He has a point there.

Naruto; Yeah!...HEY!

Sasuke; I rest my case.

LC; Alright we should get the show on the road! I'm on a roll this week!

Naruto; yeah, if you were this dedicated about school you'd get straight As.

LC;...But school's boring!

Sasuke; We know LC, we know.

Disclaimer; I do not own Naruto! Tome is mine, but he is lame! I'll trade!

Chapter 10; One is me, the other's not you!

Team seven met up soon, leaving poor Asuma to wonder why Kida seemed to be mumbling plans for assassinations of high ranking people and why Tome was muttering about ingrateful girls and stupid old men.

"Did I miss something?" He asked himself on their walk to the tower. Oh well, at least they could get out of the village for a bit. He missed being on active duty. Even if this was only a C-rank they would be out for a month at least so he wasn't complaining.  
It was like a paid vacation!

"Team seven reporting for a C-rank please Hokage-sama." Asuma greeted the blonde man cheerfully, respectfully blowing his smoke in the other direction. Which happened to be his students.

"Ugh, Kida, Shino, how are you two not gagging at that funky smell?" Tome demanded as they waited for their client to arrive.

"Why am I not bothered by the smoke? My jacket blocks most of the smoke." Shino answered.

"My mask is a filter." Kida told him, still reading from her book.

"Ha! These brats are going to be my guards while I build my super bridge? The short one doesn't look like he's even graduated from pre-school!" A grumpy drunk shouted at them. This would be Tazuna, the man they would be guarding.

"Hahahaha! Who's the shortest?" Tome laughed, looking from side to side. Shino and Kida gave him long and hard looks. Shino was one of the tallest boys in their class, and Kida did have almost a year in age over Tome, and a good couple inches.

"You stupid old man!" Ah, so he had noticed. Kida was on the shorter side of the scale but she was still taller than him, so he was below average on height on top of skill, IQs, and talent? Poor kid.

"Cool it tiger, killing the drunk client wouldn't look good for a hokage's son right?" Kida asked, using one hand to hold the boy back while her other was still holding her book in front of her face.

"Hey girlie what's with the mask? Hiding your pimples?" The man asked, having just noticed her favorite feature.

"On second thought." She said, cocking her head to one side and loosening her grip on the back of Tome's shirt.

"Relax Tazuna-san, this is only a C-rank mission and these are some of the best genin and even if they run into trouble from bandits, I'm a jounin." Asuma placated him.

"Well I hope you can all pack up super fast because I want to leave first thing in the morning!" Tazuna told them after mumbling something inaudible.

"Alright team, pack only the essentials for a month long mission as per your academy training." Asuma instructed them before taking off for the day. No doubt to meet that mysterious Kurenai-sensei that he was seeing.

Tome blinked as he tried to think back on mission packing 101 and was dissappointed. How was he supposed to know what to pack for a month long mission! He never thought a mission would actually take that long!

Kida had already gone on her way and by now was entering the lesser populated part of the village on her walk to the bookstore.  
Up above, Kilala flew on an updraft, almost too high to be made out. Her presence made Kida feel safer than ever before, having an extra set of eyes to watch her back.

'Hmm, maybe I should get some new books since I already finished all the ones I have.' She thought as she heard the tinkle of the little bell on the door.

"Ah young Kida-chan, here for another book?" The elderly cashier was actually a part time worker that always greeted her just so. She liked sitting in here and browsing during his shift.  
The younger man who usually worked her never let her read while she was here, not even when she already owned the book.

"Hello Usaribi-san." She replied, already moving to the aisles with a sharp eye out for an interesting cover. The saying went not to judge a book by it's cover, but then there was the other saying, the squeakiest wheel gets oiled first, to keep in mind.  
Covers could be misleading but how else would anyone be attracted to any book from any other unless one caught your eye?

She bought a couple books, one romance and another fantasy. They'd keep her tied up for a bit, on top of that scroll and Mito's diary.

"I won't be by for a while, going on my first C-rank mission and all." She told the old man. He hummed something and rung up her prices. Being daddy's little girl came in handy in matters of allowance.

When she got home, she found that she had the house to herself for once. She'd be away earlier than usual tommorrow, so unless she spoke to them tonight at dinner she wouldn't have a chance to talk about her mission.  
Kida sighed to herself and allowed Kilala to ride upon her shoulders as she walked up the stairs to her bedroom.

Inside the see-proof walls her mask fell, along with any walls that came up during the day. Kida took a brush from the top of her dresser and brushed out each strand carefully, until her red hair shone in the light.

"Maybe I should think of growing my hair out." She said to herself jokingly.

"I think you would look adorable in pig tails!" Kilala replied needlessly. The red haired bowed her head and sighed again, which she seemed to be making a habit of doing all of a sudden.

"Your certain there was no mix ups in Uzumaki Other Selves?" She asked for confirmation.

"Kida! Dinner time!" She hadn't even noticed the time slipping by. Glancing the clock on her bedside she saw it was already five 'o' clock! Time sure could fly by when one was curled up with a good book.

"Kaa-san, Tou-san, I just got assigned a C-rank mission today. I'll be leaving tomorrow." She said over their dinner. Sushi tonight.

"Ah yes, Minato-sensei told me about that earlier. Sasuke will of course be going with you." Kakashi watched with an amused look when Kida nearly choked on her tuna.

"What do you mean the lord emo will be going with us?" She asked, rephrasing the question.

"He's an apprentice but apprentices still need missions. So they tag along with other genin teams on their C-ranks and such to gain expierience." Kakashi explained.

"Damn, two temes on one mission? Maybe I could break my leg before the morning or something." They could laugh, but she was perfectly serious about that last statement.

"Nee-chan when can I go on missions?" Sakumo asked with a pout. His last name was definitely Hatake but he was nothing like Kakashi or his older sister. Must get it from Iruka's side of the family.

"When you graduate the academy just like everyone else. Who knows, maybe you can graduate early like tou-san." She told him kindly.

"Now now, don't put ideas into his head!" Kakashi wasn't happy about the way he had lived his life and he didn't want his son following in that particular pair of shoes.

"He should take his time to enjoy his childhood while he can. I graduated at five and there's not a day I don't regret it." He advised them both.

Sasuke, who had been left in the dark about this apparently dark family secret, didn't say a thing. Wisely in Kida's own honest opinion.

"Make sure to pack your extra clothes, pepper-spray, keep your knife on you at all times." Iruka began listing the many things she should do while on her mission and unknowingly making her life a living hell for the next few weeks.

"Pepper-spray?" Sasuke repeated, a smirk on his face.

"Not a word lord emo, or I'll be using you as a sharpening stone for this knife." She said, holding out the small dagger on the string around her neck.  
Sasuke wisely chose to close his mouth again.

_The next day!_

Kida and Sasuke ended up walking to the gates together, both carrying backpacks that held their supplies and clothes.  
The frenzy of Iruka-kaasan running about to check they had anything that morning had been flushed from their memories as best as five minutes walking time would allow.

"I never got to ask, how do you like life with us Hatakes?" Kida asked, just before coming in sight of the gate. She had been rather curious but hadn't found time to ask.

"It's fine." Sasuke answered in his usual manner. Nothing strange there. Up above Kilala stood, apparently roosting on the gates.  
Which reminded her, she had never talked about Kilala at dinner or anything. She'd do it after coming back from the mission.

"Well it's good to see your all on time." Asuma said once they stepped into view. They were actually two minutes early but that was beside the point. Tome and Shino were already waiting.

"Hey! Why are you here Sasuke?" Tome asked.

"Apprentices go on C-rank missions with genin to gain expierience." Kida told the blonde boy, choosing to not mention that she had only found out last night.

"Hey Tome, did you know Kida carries pepper-spray?" Looks like she just got a new sharpening stone. It wasn't even her birthday, how kind to get this gift.  
Before she could start sharpening her knife though, their client arrived with a massive hangover and a foul temper to match.

"Why do you carry pepper-spray?" Ten, that's how many times she had been asked that since they exitted the village. Tome had put on a rather amusing display of looking everywhere he could crane his scrawny neck for the first five minutes but the peace was shortlived.  
As hokage's son he had never been allowed outside the village before in fear he would be killed or something.

"Tome, if you ask me that one more time, I will show you." Kida promised. Tome of course did not get the hint and five minutes later proceded to ask again.

Kida whipped out the pepper-spray from her pocket, shoved it in Tome's face, then pushed the button.

"AAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHHH!" Ah, satisfaction.

Watching Tome run around and scream like a chicken with it's head cut off though, is only amusing for a little while. Then it just gets annoying and head ache inducing.  
Their client certainly shared this sentament.

"Super brat will you stop screaming and just wipe the crud out of your eyes!" Tazuna finally screamed at the stupid boy.

Asuma chuckled one last time at the poor blonde boy before turning his attention back to his surroundings. They were just on a C-rank, but something seemed remiss to him.  
Up ahead on the road was a puddle of water, one he would normally dismiss. However one thing was out of place.  
It hadn't rained in three weeks.

Kida and Shino also seemed to notice, though the other two boys seemed oblivious despite their wonderful grades in the academy.

'Are they after us? Or a different target?' She wondered, flicking her gaze upward to where Kilala was flying about lazily.

_'There are two of them, and they are getting ready to attack!' _The bird spoke within her mind. Kida guessed she shouldn't be surprised about that, since technically Kilala was just another facet of her personality.  
A more energetic and slightly more random facet.

'Kilala, just stay up there for a while, just in case I need you.' Kida instructed. Yawning slightly, as though she were fatigued, she put her book into her shuriken pouch and deftly fingered a few of the stars in the palm of her hand when she pulled it out again.

Shino shot a glance at his teammate and mentally nodded. If she was putting away that book it meant she was on guard. Subtly, he sent out some kikai bugs to find the source of her unease.  
Sure enough, it was the puddle that they were just about to pass by now.

Just when Asuma-who was dragging slightly behind-walked past the puddle, the two inside pounced.  
A chain with poisoned prongs wrapped around him and he let a confused and amazed expression cover his face before the chains tightened, seeming to kill him.

"Asuma-sensei!" Tome cried in fear. He didn't have enough time to react as one of the two nins came rushing at him while the other went for Tazuna.

"Tome!" Kida shouted, throwing two kunai to embed the chain into a tree, followed by a shuriken to make sure it jammed.

The two missing nin grunted before dropping the chains and going back to their targets. Shino had already sent his kikai to drain their chakra but at the moment, he realized that in a fight he was hopelessly outmatched.

Rather than let the fear freeze him, he jumped before Tazuna in an effort to guard against the gauntlets about to tear through the terrified man.

Meanwhile, Kida and Tome had slipped into a well known rhythm that managed to dupe the missing kiri nin.  
All those times they had been forced to train together as family friends definitely came in handy. They knew eachother's fighting techniques almost better than their own.

Kida finished their fight by revealing several thin wires around their fingers, which they had been weaving around the missing nin while they ducked and dodged all his attacks.

"Pull!" She yelled to the blonde boy. This trap was one they had thought of when Kakashi-tousan had introduced ninja wire to them. It worked like a charm. The shock of having their first kill would come later, after the fight.

"AAHH!" The man yelled before going limp as his head flew from his body, cut by the razor sharp wires and the force that pulled them taut.

"Shino!" Kida gasped, seeing the other nin about to completely massacre her teammate and lord emo.

"Sasuke!" Tome yelled with desperation, fear lacing his veins.

"I think that's enough." Suddenly Asuma was there, with his arm wrapped around the missing nin's neck. The force from the missing nin's run as he ran into Asuma's unbending arm had been delivered with enough force to snap his neck, breaking it.

"H-How?" Tome stuttered, the shock from his first battle catching up now.

"Kawarmi." Kida sighed in relief. She had been afraid the man had actually been caught off guard and killed.

"Is everyone alright?" Asuma asked, his eyes turned mostly towards Kida and Tome. If he had known this would happen he wouldn't have let them fight on their own.  
First kills could be tough, especially on a first mission.

"Yeah." Kida answered shakily. the wires tied around her fingers were loose now, and she knew if she turned her gaze a little to the right she would see the blood stained strands.

"Tazuna, care to explain why two missing nin just attacked you?" He asked with a steely tone.

"W-What d-do you mean?" The man asked with obvious surprise.

"Was this ninja attacking ninja? Or ninja attacking client? If it's the latter this mission was given the wrong rank, it's above my genins' level." He explained, almost glaring at the man.

"I'll tell you the truth." The hungover man sighed.

After his story had been told, Asuma sighed and told them to make camp for the night. They would decide what to do after everything was set up.  
It was getting late and he still had two genin to talk to.

"Kida, Tome, come with me to find some real food. I don't want to eat these plastic bars they give us for the field." He said, dragging the two strangely quiet genin with him.

He set them down on a nearby falling log once they got a good distance from the others. He took a minute to look them over first.  
Tome seemed paler than usual and he hadn't shouted at all since the fight ended. He spoke barely over a whisper and was obviously bothered by what had happened.

Kida was slightly more troubling. She had been acting almost normal, save for the missing book. She hadn't pulled one out since the just before the attack.

"I need to know how your both feeling about what happened back there before we start any kind of vote." Asuma said gently, trying to ease onto the topic. He had never had to give a talk like this and his sensei had been rather ecentric and had done more harm to him than his first kill had.

What kind of jounin sensei hires a hooker to help them forget their first kill?

"We can't just leave the old man alone! They'll kill him!" At least Tome seemed to be recovering nicely.

"Emotional attachments to the mission is only going to distract you Tome. Do you think those chunin are all that this Gato had waiting in the wings? Next time it'll be a jounin." Kida said darkly.

"Well, Tome why don't you go back to the others?" He posed it as a question but Tome had never moved so fast to get out of the surrounding area before. For a moment Kida wondered if Tome had learned the hiraishin from his father already before mentally shaking her head and focusing.

"How are you holding up Kida?" Asuma asked again, this time just to her.

"I'm fine." The girl said unimpressed. She could keep going. She wasn't going to break down on her first mission!

"Really?" Asuma asked with a disbelieving look. He wanted a smoke right then, but held off.

"I want to continue this mission, I don't want to fail." She told him. Ah, so that was it. She had a lot to live up to with _her_ father.  
Failing must be her little secret fear with a father as succesful as her's.

"This mission is above and beyond what a genin should be asked to do, it's not failing if you want to go home and see your family." He said gently, sitting down next to her and slightly encouraged when she didn't move away.

"That's it, I'm just a genin." She muttered, sounding rather disheartened. Her father had been where she was now at five, chunin at six, and freaking jounin by thirteen! What was she doing? Wasting her time! Some heiress!

E N D O F T H I S C H A P T E R S O P L E A S E R E V I E W A N D H A V E G O O D D AY!

LC; If you can read the above congrats!

Naruto; Well this chapter wasn't bad but it was pretty angsty.

Sasuke; Hey, she saved Tome, is he considered a friend? Cause if so she just reached a goal.

LC; Mmm, we'll see! By the end of this arc, we'll see!

Naruto; That does not inspire me with confidence.

LC; Nor I my friend, nor I.

Sasuke; You should really plan out your stories.

LC; I should, but I won't.


	11. deaths and chakra

LC; I'M FUCKING PISSED OFF RIGHT NOW!

Naruto; What happened? Did you forget to buy tampons?

LC; WORSE! I HAD ALREADY FINISHED THIS STUPID CHAPTER AND THEN MY COMPUTER CRASHED!

Sasuke;...What's the bad part?

LC; DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND THAT THIS IS THE SECOND TIME I'VE WRITTEN THIS? IT'S ANNOYING!

Naruto; Why do I get the feeling this chapter might be painful.

LC; BECAUSE I AM MORE PISSED THEN THE TIME WHEN THE VIRUS DELETED EVERYTHING!

Sasuke; That might be why.

LC; GRRRRR! STUPID SUCKY COMPUTER THAT KEEPS GETTING VIRUSES AND CRASHING! GAH!

Disclaimer; I would not mess with me today. I don't own them so you can leave now. Shoo.

Chapter 11; When life gives you lemons, toss them back at life and demand chocolate.

They sat there for some time, each lost in their own thoughts. Kida wishes she could take off her mask and breathe in the evening air, something she hadn't done since she could barely remember. The curse of the Hatake mask traditions.

Asuma fidgeted a little and his hands itched to light a cancer stick. He refrained though, feeling that this moment was too serious to smoke to calm his nerves. Still though, he did let himself draw one stick, although he did not light it.

Kida took a breath through the fabric of her mask and tried to understand everything she was feeling and why she felt those things. It was a concentration technique she liked to do whenever she felt a lot of things at once, it helped her to focus.

She was angry, because she was forced to kill that missing nin, because that nin attacked, or maybe because she didn't like the chains of tradition she was held by. She focused further and decided she was angry because of all those things. They all came together to make her rather pissed off.

She felt sad, she didn't like the blood on her hands. She didn't even get any blood on her hands but she had scrubbed them viciously in the stream they'd passed.  
She hated that feeling! She knew she'd be seeing his face that night.

She felt frustrated, she didn't have a problem knowing it was because of her lack of progress at being a great kunoichi. She felt so weak in comparison with her father! Like she would never escape her tou-san's shadow!  
This was the biggest part of her emotions at the moment. She hated how weak she felt in comparison with that other version of herself, the one who went by Naru Uzumaki, wore orange, and had blonde hair.

"Stop that." The interruption in her thinking was so unexpected she almost did jump out her skin.

"You shouldn't compare yourself with your father." She gave him a questioning look.

Asuma was inwardly laughing his ass off. He wondered if the Hatakes knew that their masks didn't hide as much as they thought it did. As if to make up for the fabric, a Hatake's eyes were twice as expressive as a normal person's eyes.

"I know you compare yourself to him, and to your teammates, maybe even to me. You need to stop that. Your not your father, your not your teammates, and your not me." She cocked her head to one side and raised a brow. A what-kind-of-dope-are-you-smoking kind of look if ever he saw one.

"The only one you should compare yourself to is yourself. That is, the you of yesterday." He explained.

"If you can run a little farther than you could yesterday, do one more push-up, one more curl up, then you've improved." Her eyes began to light up as she caught on to what he was trying to say.

"I guess I'll head back to the others, come back when you feel up to it." He told her, getting up to leave and finally giving into his urge to smoke a nice, long drag.

Kida sighed as soon as he was out of sight and hearing and pulled down her mask. She took a deep breath and revelled in the feeling of clean air against her face.  
Kilala dropped down next to her and chirped in her ear about not feeling sorry for herself. She wasn't really listening.

"Myself, ne?" She murmured, a little smile playing on her lips. Her whisker marks were fine, and her face clean of blemishes. She thought she looked rather exotic. She always had. She wondered if anyone even remembered what her face looked like, outside her family.

She pulled the mask back up, reluctantly, and pulled out her romance novel. Now to find out if Nojiko would forgive Keisuke for cheating on her with the servant! _Insert giggle._

She wasn't sure but she _could_ have imagined the way that everyone sighed in relief when they saw her reading that book. She could have.

The next day Tazuna took them to meet up with a rowman, who he had hired to take them to the island he lived on and where he was building the bridge.

"So that's your bridge." It was the first time that she had lifted her nose from the pages of her beautifully written novel. The structure looked impressive in size and was simple yet elegant in form and design. She approved.

"Yep, that's Nami's hope." Tazuna muttered absent mindedly. He looked on at his creation in pride.

"This is as far as I can take you." The rowman stated as they reached the shore. He wasn't risking his life any further than he already had at this point.

"Thank you for this risk." Tazuna said politely as the man shoved off again to put his boat back on it's moorings.

"This way." The man said gruffly, pointing down the direction of the road they were on.

Kida didn't register whatever words were on the page she had just turned to. She knew that they were in enemy territory now and she should behave accordingly.  
Few genin were ever taken out first. No, there were two logical targets at the moment. The first would be Tazuna, the actual target. The second would be Asuma-sensei, take him out and the rest would follow.

It was a common strategy, and she figured that if she was in the enemy's position, this would be the place to implement it. There was natural mist cover and the road was narrower here tha anywhere else, the forest surrounding them from most directions now.  
She palmed two shuriken, this would be the place for an ambush.

_'Damn, I need to pay more attention to my team, them doing surprising things is going to give me a heart attack one of these days.'_ She decided a moment later as Tome cuddled a rabbit that he had almost murdered. Even Sasuke was shaking his head at the boy's antics.

"Tome, that is a white rabbit in the middle of summer." She said slowly, making sure the boy was actually listening to her this time.

"Which means-! Get down!" Asuma shouted as he grabbed their client. Kida knocked down Tome and didn't spare a moment, just hoping Shino and Sasuke didn't freeze up and get killed.

A man appeared on the giant cleaver that was lodged into the tree. He wasn't wearing a shirt, had puffy pants, and wore his slashed kiri hitaite crooked on his head.  
He also had a mask of bandages across his face, which instantly made her respect him. She respected masks.

"Hmm, here I was thinking you were just some konoha flunkee only to catch a glimpse of that sash." The man said, his voice slightly muffled by the bandages.

"Asuma Sarutobi, your thirty five million bounty would come in handy." He chuckled, obviously amused at this turn of events.

"Zabuza Mumochi, known for killing an entire graduating class without ever attending, failed a coup against the mizukage, and is now looking for another go at it." Asuma said demurely, listing all he knew about the masked nin. Zabuza only laughed.

"So you know about the graduation exam?" He asked.

"We all know about the exam. How do you think we became ninja?" Tome asked, not fully comprehending the enormity of what they had just heared. This was a man who could go toe to toe with a kage level shinobi.

"Tome, the graduation in kiri is a lot different than the one in Konoha." Kida gulped as she remembered the story her tou-san had told her as a child.

"To graduate in kiri, it used to be that you had to kill one of the students. But they changed that practice." She informed the blonde haired boy. Even he was starting to look a little green around the gills.

"They changed it because one boy, without ever attending their academy, managed to kill every single student. The demon of the mist." Zabuza seemed absolutely delighted that she knew his history.

"That man, was Zabuza Mumochi." He burst into laughter than, hearing her dramatic end to the story.

"Looks like Konoha is finally teaching their genin something." He said in admiration, basking in their inner turmoil.

"My tou-san made me memorize the bingo book." She said dismissively.

"Who's your tou-san gaki?" Zabuza asked, obviously interested.

"Kakashi Hatake. My name is Kida Hatake." His eyes seemed to positively glow then! It looked like christmas had come early for the missing nin.

"Well, how interesting. I already know the blonde boy, everyone knows the flash's son. You two would be worth a mint if I captured you alive and sent pieces to your daddys." He told them. Kida could feel Tome freeze at the mention of his parentage. She wondered what Zabuza would think if he knew she was the flash's daughter. How Tome would react to find out she was his older sister.

"If you want them you have to get past me." Asuma said, sounding rather impressive and lavishing the air with his own KI to combat the one his opponent was unconciously releasing.

"Of course, I'd be happy to oblige." Zabuza said, pulling his sword from the tree and landing on top of the lake.

"Now then, kirigakure no jutsu." The mist around them thickened until they couldn't see past their own noses.

"Sasuke, Shino, Tome, manji formation! Kida your support!" He ordered through the mist, knowing they would hear him. No one put forth any protests and slipped into the battle formation that had been drilled into their heads since the first day at the academy.

Kida pulled out her kunai and put away her book. She was support, that meant she had to use her Hatake tracking jutsu to find Zabuza and help Asuma keep up with the man while simultaniously making sure he didn't get too close to her team.

A few hand seals later her hearing and sense of smell far exceded those of her teammates' and she was frantically searching for her sensei and Zabuza.

"Shino, send out some bugs to weaken Zabuza." She ordered quietly, hoping he wouldn't hear. The bug user nodded and some of his kikai began sneaking out of his clothing and began flying through the air towards the chakra sources that they could sense. He gave them strict orders not to drain Asuma-sensei's or their reserves and sent them on their way.

"Liver, kidney, lungs, heart, spine, sub-clavicle vien, jugular vein, and brain. Eight vital places, now which should I aim for?" His disembodied voice seemed to come from all directions. Kida knew then her hearing wouldn't help her any and so she let that part of the jutsu go in favor of strengthening her nose ever further.

Yes, she could smell him! He smelt like blood, the forrest, another scent like that of a boy, and water. Wait, water doesn't have a scent unless it's being held together with water!

And he was right behind her!

"I think I'll take out the girl first." She whipped around faster than she previously thought possible and saw him about to knock her out. She knew if he did than she would be lost. For the second time in her life, she vanished from reality.

_The mindscape!_

_'Great, I'm back here again and have about two seconds before being knocked unconcious and then kidnapped to be used for ransom.'_ She ranted within her own mind. Wait, this was her mindscape and she was talking in her mind so how did that work? Bah, this was too confusing for her!

She knew why she was here though, so she chose not to waste anymore time and ran down the hall to where she could feel the Kyubi.

Standing in front of his cage now, she couldn't help but feel like she was making a deal with the devil in accepting his chakra. She had no choice, she knew, but she didn't like it.

**"Pathetic little girl, need my help again?"** He asked, his voice gravelly and sending shudders up her spine.

"Don't think you can lecture me you overgrown plushy, just hand over the chakra and I'll be going to make sure we don't get cut up into bite sized pieces." She said fiercly, for now she wasn't in the mood to be respectful and try to convince him to give her chakra willingly. She was too busy wondering how much longer she had till everything went black.

**"Take my chakra midday snack."** The fox sniffed, obviously not impressed with her insult. She shrugged before feeling the red chakra sneaking it's way through her body again.

"Thanks."

_Reality!_

Kida felt the amazing strength of the chakra overwhelm her being and saw everything as though it were happening in slow motion. She saw the chop to the neck that would no doubt keep her down for a few days and smiled beneath her mask.

"Too slow!" She taunted him from behind as she slashed a kunai through his surprised form. She had moved behind him in the space usually reserved for a blink of the eye.

The water splashed to the ground and she felt her anger growing as her frustration banked the fires. She didn't like this guy. She wanted him dead.

Kida shook her head and forced herself to think logically, not to give in to the instincts.

"Asuma-sensei, three meters behind you and closing!" She shouted a warning to the former guardian. Asuma didn't question her and merely launched an attack with his trench knives in that direction. The smell of fresh blood told her he hadn't missed.

Tome was shaking as he felt the insane amount of bloodlust in the area. Not only were the two jounin exhibiting it, but also Kida! This bloodlust he felt from her was familiar somehow though, like he'd felt it before.

That's when he realized he had! When he had been tricked by Mizuki and stolen the forbidden scroll, when they had been about to die, she had called upon this same chakra! Only last time it had vanished so quickly he had doubted he really felt it at all. Now though, he knew it wasn't just a figment of his imagination.

Zabuza can call himself a demon as much as he cares to, Tome decided. Because at the moment, the real monster was Kida Hatake.

Kida felt the power fade away again and she recognized a strange kind of tiredness settle into her very bones. It appeared that power came at a price. If she ever had to use it in a real fight, such as the one between Asuma-sensei and Zabuza now, she wouldn't get a second chance. As soon as she let that energy go she would be too exhausted to fight back.

Zabuza's mind was working on turbo mode as he tried to figure out what that power he had sensed from the girl had been. He knew Hatakes had a rare form of chakra as a bloodline limit, known as White chakra, that was very dangerous and more potent than normal chakra. However what he just felt seemed different.

What he felt, if he had to describe it with a color, was red.

Could she have some kind of mutation in her bloodline limit that changed the chakra, did the next Hatake generation become even stronger? It seemed the most likeliest explanation for what he had just witnessed and why the jounin Asuma hadn't seemed that surprised. Only the other kiddies seemed nervous.

Maybe the girl didn't have as much control over it as he would think of a Hatake. He heard the white chakra was hard to control at the best of times.

All the while, he had been swapping jutsu with that Asuma guy. The man was a wind affinity if ever he saw one, that was for certain. Air bullets, air blades, even a little tornado that could probably rip him to shreds once, although Asuma seemed tired after that one.

He responded in kind of course, with water dragons, water bullets, and water clones where he deemed appropriate.

"Zabuza, I'm not letting you escape so easily!" Asuma vowed, getting a little frustrated with how the man was keeping him at a distance. He had a lot of long range jutsu but he wasn't a ninjutsu type. He preferred hand to hand combat personally but Zabuza knew with his big sword he would be out classed in terms of speed against him and his trench knives.

Kida helped where she could, sending kunai and shuriken to try and drive him either towards or away from Asuma-sensei in order to make the fight better.  
She was glad for all the hours of aim practice she had put into her skills, they were probably saving her sensei's life right now.

"Your more trouble than your worth gaki!" Zabuza yelled suddenly, sending the water dragon he had prepared towards her, rather than her sensei.

Her eyes widening at the sight of the attack she felt her entire being screaming for her to move. Suddenly the laws of physics passed gas and gravity dropped dead. At least that's what she would later swear would happen.

Because one minute she's standing and staring at a dragon of liquid about to tear her to pieces and the next she's up in the air and had no recollection of jumping.

In the air, she threw more kunai and shuriken, to keep the missing nin off balance long enough for her sensei to get in close. It worked wonderfully.  
Just as Asuma got close enough and began to swipe at Zabuza's exposed jugular, she realized that they weren't alone.

Zabuza burst into smoke, and rather than the log she had half expected, a boy wearing a hunter's mask appeared instead.  
Zabuza had kawarmiied himself free of a killing stroke by using that mysterious hunter. Poor guy, he didn't look much older than...she did...

Her tracking jutsu was still activated, and she recognized that guy's scent. That was the boy she smelled on Zabuza only a little while ago. Kami, was it really just thirty minutes ago? It seemed like an eternity after the battle began.

The boy was already dead by the time she reached her sensei's side. The mask had been lifted to reveal a surprisingly feminine face for a boy, one who's eyes were already glazed over in death.  
Strangely enough a small smile graced his face.

"Where did he go?" Tome asked shakily, trying to shake off the tension of the moment.

"He kawarmiied with this boy to escape." Asuma told him. She stretched her sense of smell as far as possible but he had already covered his tracks. It seemed he had left via water way.

"I can't track him." She admitted, feeling a little disappointed that one of the great seven swordsman was forced to retreat.

"Who's this guy?" Sasuke asked, walking up to inspect the body. He was jealous that Kida had been able to help in the battle, but he knew from a logical stand point that she was the strongest of the present genin. He knew that she was stronger than both him and Tome from the practices he had been present to since joining her clan as an honorable Hatake.

END OF THE CHAPTER AND NOW I MUST WORK ON ANOTHER FIC! NO REST FOR THE WEARY!

LC; Now to work on another fic of mine.

Naruto; Your behind in your little personal schedule.

LC; Stupid computer crashing and making me rewrite all this work.

Sasuke; Don't blame the computer, blame the owner for being too pour to buy a new one.

LC; *Sigh* Yeah. This computer needs replacing. I've had it for so long though!

Naruto; It's your 'baby'! You used to sleep with it!

LC; I was young and in love!...With the internet.


End file.
